


He shouldn't be here

by lexax



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Complete, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rescue, definitely, episode prompto spoilers kinda, gotta have at least some in there, happy ending bc fuck the real games ending, i wrote this because they deserve better, slow burn probably?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-01-04 11:24:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 53,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12167904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexax/pseuds/lexax
Summary: He tried so hard to not to return to this place, yet here he is- about to open those doors- to see the hell hole he so desperately tried to leave behind him.One thing was for sure, he WOULD return with his friends no matter what- Ignis,Gladio...... Noct.... he better not have hurt them.Goddamn it, Why did everything have to go to shit?Basically it's Prompto being a bad ass dude and rescuing the gang after Ardyn comes along and tries to fuck with him.I promise it's more deep and interesting than that but i suck at summaries- so here we go.





	1. The past

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first fan fiction dudessss.  
> I have only ever written small stories in the past and most of it was description... so if this sucks go easy on me :D
> 
> Anyway, i wrote this because Promptis is definitely my favourite ship (thanks game you made me obsessed) and the game's characters were awesome...BUT I DID NOT APPROVE OF THAT BULLSHIT ENDING..... so yeah you can kinda see that i'm mad about how it ended so i decided i would write this to give the characters the ending they deserved and to support mah ship, also because i have seen some (ha some, i mean A LOT) of promptis fanfics on here and i love them so i hope to make something thats kinda as good as that....maybe.
> 
> Anyway enjoy.

Fight, fight, fight….  
Push yourself, keep working harder, harder  
Learn, get better, advance your skill.  
Or starve.  
Starve until he got it right  
Starve until he was perfect  
Or food will never come  
And he was perfect or as close to it as something could get to it  
He had heard the people who controlled this place say so  
That he “had progressed the most and had become the best”  
And that he “was no longer the useless shit they brought in”  
“A miracle in the making”  
They were wrong, all of them  
He was no useful miracle  
He was a monster, that’s what they made him  
But this was his life and he had accepted that  
It was all he ever knew  
Until the day the place was destroyed  
He ran, ran as fast and fluently as he had been taught  
“Use what they have taught you to escape”  
“Find freedom, live like most kids should”  
“Never come back”  
Those were the last words he heard.  
The chains were broken he was free. His life wasn’t perfect (far from it actually) but he was free and as his life progressed it slowly got better- making new friends and memories along the way. He had almost forgot that place… almost.  
Yet life had to screw it up, didn’t it? After all these years something had to happen so that he would have to step  
through those doors again. This time he was coming back out on his own terms and he was taking his friends with him. No matter the cost, they were going to live through this, they were going to get home.  
“I’m back”.


	2. The better times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang have a pretty nice evening and morning, until someone decides to visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all this to make sense, i thought i should tell you how much i'm sticking to the game and how much I've just made up. You don't need to read this if you don't really care what has already happened or if you just wanna go with the flow of the story.  
> Spoilers  
> Basically, this is when the gang first go to Lestallum to meet Iris. Noctis does not get headaches like he does in the game (cause he didn't deserve that shit), but king Regis is dead or at least that's what the news says. This is also where the gang meet Ardyn for the second time but it goes differently and that whole thing with titan doesn't happen. That's basically all ya need to know for this chapter.  
> Btw if i got some of the actual game parts that happened wrong in this summary- sorry but i got a terrible memory so i can't exactly recall when some events happened.  
> If ya have any more questions please comment them :D

“Hey Noct, wanna play some kings knight?”

 

“sure, why not”

 

It had all started that day, a completely normal day in Lestallum. Noctis and Prompto were basking in the cosiness of the hotel, while Ignis and Gladio were out fetching supplies. Prompto would’ve joined them, but the princes’ whining and complaining about leaving his heaven of a bed and the warmth embrace of his duvets (which he was currently engulfed in) meant that everyone knew he was going nowhere easily, therefore Ignis insisted that he would go and Gladio volunteered to help him carry the needed supplies. “As his majesty is obviously too much of a lazy ass to get his own potions”, were Gladio’s last words as he left.

Currently trapped in the prison of the comfy duvets, Noctis struggled to reach for his phone on the nightstand, seeing this Prompto jumped up from the floor next to the bed to obtain Noctis’s phone before he injured himself.

“There ya go buddy” Prompto said cheerily, amused by the prince’s predicament. He handed Noct his phone, hearing a muffled “thanks” as Noct grabbed it in his hands and proceeded to start up the game, Prompto sat back down on the floor with a thud as he copied Noct’s actions and started to play the game.

 

“oh dude, I am sooooo gonna kick your ass” declared Prompto, exaggerating the o sound.

 

“pfft, in your dreams” replied Noctis, as he now sat up in his bed to properly concentrate on his game.

 

“hmm, funny that because I’m pretty sure I DID beat your ass last time, so I’m pretty sure winning can happen again”

 

“hmph, that was just luck” replied Noct, his voice becoming a little more agitated and grumpy as the warmth of his bed no longer kept him happy, as his bitter, cold, devastating defeat of last time was mentioned.

He’s as whiny as a little kid when he loses.

“oh reallyyyyyyy?” laughed Prompto as he saw his friend’s now miserable face.

Noctis shot him a hard-ice-cold glare, after hearing his friends’ amusement from his mood, which Prompto returned with a cocky grin. _That asshole_. Determined to not lose again, Noctis turned back to the bright, glaring light of his game and fixed himself on staring right at it.

Underneath it all though, Noctis loved moments liked this. Moments where he could just relax with Prompto, where every worry or stress filled thoughts that consumed his brain were overpowered by Prompto’s brilliant light and smile. Hearing Prompto’s sounds of excitement over his game, made his face light with a little smile _. Yeah these are some good times but wait_ …. goddamn HIS GAME.

Being so lost in his thoughts Noctis completely forgot about his previous objective of winning and playing his game. Huge, red letters saying, ‘game over’ were stained on his phone screen, Noctis’s eyes widen in surprised at his phone and narrowed as he looked at Prompto.

Prompto was wearing a smug grin on his face, with one eyebrow arched up as if he was trying to say, “you were saying?” without opening his mouth. Instead of thinking of a smart retaliation to Prompto’s winning, Noctis threw his phone at Prompto who dodged it with a small squeak.

“DUDE, NOCT WHAT THE HELL?” Prompto exclaimed as he reached for Noct’s’ phone which was now on the floor, as he gave Noct a glare.

Noctis just shrugged in reply and started to get out of his bed, then he headed for the bathroom leaving Prompto to just stare in shocked, with his mouth slightly agape as the bathroom door closed. Eventually and slowly, Prompto closed his mouth and put his eyes back to their normal size. Chuckling to himself, Prompto stood up from the floor and laid Noctis’s phone on the bedside table as he sat on Noctis’s bed.

“WOW NOCT, YOU SORE LOSER” Prompto shouted at the bathroom door, he heard a slightly angry huff, as he went back to his phone.

 

Ignis and Gladio returned a little while later to see a slightly worried Prompto talking to a slightly still irritated Noctis who had returned from the bathroom and returned to his bed, but not before giving Prompto another glare.

“What has happened here? asked Ignis as he surveyed the room.

“Noct’s mad because I beat him at Kings Knight and he got pissed, and he STILL hasn’t got over it and refuses to talk to me! So now I’m here TRYING to apologise but he still won’t even LOOK at me” Prompto exclaimed, his speech rushed as he tries to explain the ridiculousness of the situation, feeling a little disappointed that his friend hasn’t said one word.

“oh, that’s it, is it? Prompto, ya know you can’t beat Noct otherwise he’ll end up all pissy” said Gladio, looking at the two in amusement as he set some of the bags down.

“I knowww and I was trying to let him win after beating him last time, but it was like he wasn’t even playing the game” Prompto explained as he looked at Noctis once again.

“hmm I see, I’m gonna go about unpacking” Ignis stated, with an amused grin as he gazed at the three, before heading into the next room.

Gladio gave a chuckle before saying” come on Noct, stop being a little baby, you’re upsetting Prompto”, Noctis huffed in reply. Suddenly, Prompto sat up with a small mischievous glint in his eye as he looked back over to Noct’s lying form.

“well I guess if ya ain’t willing to get up and talk to me willingly Noct, I could always force ya” Prompto said as he continued to look at Noct who sat up a little to give Prompto a questioning look.

“Likeeee THIS” exclaimed Prompto as he pounced on the prince and started his tickle attack. Noct, who is more sensitive than he is willing to admit, instantly started to laugh as the blonde tickled at his side.

“sto-ah hah stop ahAHAH PROM STO- AHAHHA”

“what’s that’s Noct? I can’t hear you”

Seeing the situation, Gladio picked up the leftover bags and left Noctis and Prompto alone to join Ignis in the other room. _Them two idiots_ he thought.

 

The next day.

It was early morning, with the sun only just peeking over the horizon lighting up Lestallum as stall owners started to set up with a tired look in their eyes and a sluggish movement in their steps. Even with everyone being possessed with early morning moodiness, the orange glint of the sun fuelled the streets with a magnificent glow as though they were set ablaze. Among these early risers were the quite tired prince and his three friends.

With all the supplies gathered, the gang were ready to set off once again. With the regalia filled with fuel and everyone strapped. Ignis started the car… or at least he tried to. The regalia made a sound of starting, before chocking and turning off again. Once again Ignis tried to start her up, but she didn’t make a sound. “dah hell?” said Gladio, glancing over at Ignis “why ain’t she starting Iggy?”

“I’m afraid I do not know Gladio, but the regalia refuses to start” replied Ignis as he pocketed the keys.

“so, I’m guessing this means we’re not going anywhere?” questioned Prompto as he and everyone else proceeded to exit the car, looking pretty bummed out that they got up so early for no reason.

“Not until we get it fixed, I shall call Cindy to see if she can help us out” said Ignis as he went off to make the phone call in a more quiet, secluded location.

Gladio sighed as he watched Ignis walk away, “well I guess I’m gonna go get me some cup noodles, if we’re just gonna be stuck here, you guys coming?”

Pulling out his camera, Prompto turned to look at Gladio, “maybe later big guy, since there’s nowhere else to go, I’m gonna go take some more photos”, he smiled before heading towards the beach.

“Suit yourself, what about you Noct?”

Noctis paused, thinking to himself, before replying “Nah I’m good Gladio, I’m gonna go wander might go catch some fish”, he then started to head down the street, waving back at Gladio.

Huffing to himself, Gladio walked towards the nearest vender and ordered himself some cup noodles. While eating, Gladio looked around admiring the gorgeous views and the glaring sun overhead, _maybe staying here for a little longer wouldn’t be so bad_. There was a beach; where the water was like a combination of tiny crystals: clear and pure all combined, and the sand was a comfortable, warm pillow as you stood on it. The stalls were plenty and the people seemed friendly and quite full of life as they went around their daily duties. Plus, his sister was here. Thinking of Iris, Gladio decided that some more time hanging around with his little sis would do him and her some good. After all it’s about time they had some time together as brother and sister. Finalising his decision, Gladio set off back to the hotel where his little sis should still be at. _Today might actually turn out alright._

A little away from Gladio, Ignis had just finished his call with Cindy. She would be there shortly but the repairs may take some time. Rubbing his eyes while sighing, Ignis went back over to the Regalia; seeing it abandoned, Ignis opened the car doors and relaxed in the comfy leather of the Regalia’s seats. _Might as well be cosy while waiting_ , he thought as he rested his eyes, sinking into the confinements of the seat. _Hmm this is nice._

Bouncing around, Prompto was making the most of the setback that had popped up, as he took photo after photo making the most of Lestallum’s views and sites. Seeing a perfect photo opportunity, he set about taking the pic of the sea, he rested his head on the sand lining up the pic, as the seagulls glided overhead and the water glistened with sparkles as the waves took their time to go back and forth. _Perfect_ , he thought _Noct’s gonna love this one._ His head shot up as soon as soon as his brain caught up and he had processed that thought, _well Noct and everyone else of course, not like it’s just him that matters._ He slapped his hands over both of his cheeks _,_ _goddammit Prompto get it together._ Forcing his thoughts to go back to the photos, Prompto tore his gaze from the sea and headed down the beach his head down as the same thought went over in his head, _I’m such an idiot._

The prince was lazing around the streets, simply appreciating the views the early morning had to offer, until he saw a familiar figure on the opposite side of the street near the telescopes Iris had shown him earlier. Stopping and turning himself round, Noctis faced the figure which was looking out at the sea. Staring at the figure a name came up _, is that who I think it is?_ Looking at the figures’ attire there was no doubt in Noctis’s mind of who that was, as he doubted he had ever seen odder looking clothes in his life. _Ardyn._ _Why the hell is he here?_ Curiosity getting the better of him, Noctis headed towards the figure, questioning his intentions each step he took, _why am I doing this? Shouldn’t I just leave him alone? Then maybe he would return the favour and not bother him._ His thoughts plaguing his mind, Noctis’s body took over and continued to walk.

When he was within speaking distance, Noctis stop opening his mouth preparing to speak, but before he had a chance Ardyn spoke up, “well this is a pleasant surprise, the prince gifting me with his presence a second time. I’m honoured”, turning around Ardyn gave Noctis a sly grin “to what to I owe the pleasure of having his majesty’s audience?” he asked while giving Noctis a low bow.

In a way, he was acting civil and respectful to Noctis status, but his eyes, his grin and his tone of voice, made him appear too suspicious for their meeting to be a coincidence. These thoughts sent a shiver down Noctis’ spine. There was something very wrong with this man, he just didn’t know what.

Gazing down at his bowed figure Noctis asked “What are you doing here, Ardyn?”, he’ll admit his tone was less than friendly, but he didn’t particularly care.

Ardyn stood back up, straightening himself before replying “why I’m simply here to take in the sites, I’m but a mere tourist socialising with the local people”, Ardyn looked right into Noctis’ eyes as he asked “so where are your friends from before? I’m guessing the prince wouldn’t have come alone? I would’ve thought your blonde friend would at least be with you”

Ardyns’ words agitated Noctis slightly, Ardyn should stay well away from his friends and where Prompto was and why he was not with him was none of his damn business. However, he did not let his emotions show, all his previous talks and training about handling these situations were resurfacing to his mind. _Stay cool Noctis, don’t let him see your thoughts_. Keeping his face blank and his voice emotionless Noctis replied “my companions are elsewhere” looking Ardyn right in the eye.

Faking being disappointed Ardyn replied with a slight fake sadness tone “oh what a shame. I was looking forward to seeing you all together again, after all my dear prince friends are important and if you don’t look after them and spend your time with them wisely, they will just go. Forever. And you shall have nothing left”. Smirking, Ardyn turned around as he announced his departure “Till next time your highness”.

Noctis was left there, confusion consuming his mind. By the time his thoughts were collected, Ardyn had already left. _What the hell did he mean by that?_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you can tell i start getting back into the habit of writing as the chapter goes along- it's been a while since I've written this much so sorry for any mistakes or any rushed parts or repetitiveness :)  
> Also sorry this chapter doesn't go very far story wise but as i get more into the writing it should get better and longer then we'll make some real progress.
> 
> Thanks for reading.  
> If ya want you can leave a comment


	3. A bad night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still being trapped in Lestallum Noctis and co return to the motel for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any mistakes i'm SORREH i uploaded this realllyyyy late, so i did'nt really check over it.
> 
> But enjoy anyway

 

 

With the sun setting in Lestallum; the streets appeared calmer, as most stalls were already or currently closing. Street lights illuminated the darker neighbourhood like starts scattered cross a shadowed sky. Dwellers of the night sought shelter in their brilliantly, bold, beautifully lighted homes, reuniting themselves with their families who have already returned. With the streets bare only so many remained, including a dark shadowed figure watching the hotel as the prince entered it.

Everyone met back at the hotel, after Ignis had sent a text updating them on the situation. Cindy had arrived earlier that day, with Ignis waiting for her by the Regalia. She had checked the car over and with a huff as she closed the hood, she had turned to face Ignis, “Sorry hun, but she ain’t going nowhere for a while”.

Rubbing his forehead Ignis inquired “How long is a while exactly?”, today had started bad and was getting worse, with all these setbacks Ignis was starting to get a headache that was going to last unless something good happened. Looking at him with guilty eyes Cindy had said “well hun, I would say at least 3 days, that’s the best I can do”, she had headed back over to the Regalia and leaned against the door “I can get her over to the shop now if y’all want me to”.

“yes, that would much appreciated thank you Cindy”

 

Back to current time at the hotel, the four had gone to Noctis’ and Promptos’ room – discussing about Ignis’ news and what they should do next. Ignis’ news had different reactions from the other three: Gladio was a little annoyed about the setback but also secretly happy as it meant more time with Iris, Prompto was positive about it all going on about how he can just take more photos and that they all can still enjoy themselves in Lestallum, Noctis couldn’t care less – he didn’t really mind about the setback he had been having an enjoyable time in Lestallum excluding that run in with Ardyn.

After listening to everyone’s’ thoughts Gladio asked Ignis “so, what happens now?”, while making himself comfy in the cushiony chairs, he faced Ignis waiting for his answer in hope that he would have some kind of plan. Unfortunately, Ignis had no ideas currently “Right now I have no idea Gladio, I suppose we should try and make our time in Lestallum the most productive it can be” Ignis said although he was struggling to think of tasks they could do in Lestallum that wouldn’t be a waste of time.

Rising from his position on his bed, Noctis headed towards the bathroom “Well while you’re all trying to think of a solution, I’m going to have a shower”, he didn’t say it in the most encouraging way, but he was tired, he smelled and that meeting with Ardyn still troubled his mind. While entering the bathroom Noct thought he heard Gladio say something about him helping too and that they weren’t his slaves, but the words were drowned out as he closed the door and started preparing for his shower.

Turning on the shower, Noct checked the temperature before undressing and getting in. With the continuous downpour of water on his head and tensed muscles, Noct started to relax – until his thoughts lingered back onto the conversation with Ardyn, he was more concerned with what Ardyns’ words meant rather than on their setback on the journey. _Friends are important and if you don’t look after them and spend your time with them wisely, they will just go._ What the hell did that mean? Was he threatening them? Was something going to happen to his friends if they didn’t all stay together?    _and you shall have nothing left._ Was Ardyn planning something? Whatever the hell Ardyn was up to, Noct wouldn’t let him hurt his friends. _Let him try,_ he thought. With his thoughts wondering, more of Ardyns previous words creeped into Noctis’ mind, _where are your friends from before?..._   _I would’ve thought your blonde friend would at least be with you._ That thought pissed him off even more, why did that bastard specify Prompto specifically? Was he planning on going after Prompto when he was on his own? It wasn’t like Prompto couldn’t defend himself or anything, but the thought of Ardyn sneaking up on Prompto when Noct wasn’t around and then somehow hurting the blonde made Nocts’ stomach fill with pain and his heart wrench. The overwhelming emotion of fear and concern coming form that thought was too much for him, _I need to calm down,_ he told himself _Prompto is fine, everyone is fine -  Ardyn can’t hurt us. why would he want to anyway?_

Silencing those thoughts; Noct exited the shower, dried himself off and got some clothes on. He then exited the bathroom, relief filling him as he saw everyone still in the room – safe. Even though he had tried to forget those thoughts – they still lingered in his mind, so looking around the room and seeing Prompto sitting on Noctis’ bed on his phone then looking up and smiling at him – it made Noct relax and he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. He wandered into the room and sat down next to the blonde.

“you playing kings knight?”

“yeah dude, wanna join in?”

 

Prompto was concerned. It had been a little while since Noctis had entered the bathroom and he still hadn’t returned. _He usually doesn’t take this long._ He was trying not to be so paranoid about why Noctis was taking so long, but no matter how many times he tried to stay concentrated on his game – his wandering gaze always went back to the bathroom door _. I’m being stupid, what’s the worst that could happen to Noct in the bathroom._ Today had been a pretty good day – Prompto was kind of proud of the photos he had taken that day and he noted that everyone seems to be in a pretty good mood; Gladio seemed pleased with the time he had spent that day with Iris, Ignis although he was irritated earlier appeared quite calm and relaxed right now ( _although,_ Prompto supposed, _he usually is calm_ ) and Noctis wasn’t too bothered about the setback earlier. _Although something does seem off with him right now, did something happen today?_ Noctis was always one for keeping to himself but Prompto was proud to say that he was one of the few people Noctis confided in, he didn’t say everything but Prompto was always there to listen and to make sure his friend knew he wasn’t alone and that he could always talk to him. _Maybe I’m just thinking too into this, he’s probably fine,_ Prompto concluded as he glued his eyes back to his screen.

When the prince had finally returned from his shower, Prompto relaxed as he saw him looking around the room - looking fine. Finding Noctis now looking at him, Prompto gave him a smile as he walked over. Although earlier Prompto thought Noctis’ eyes had become a bit dull, the shower had lightened them back up. Smiling to himself Prompto turned to Noctis.

“you playing kings knight?”

 

By the time the streets were dead in Lestallum and there were no longer any wandering souls wondering the streets, Ignis and Gladio had bid the other two good night and went to their room. Left alone, Noctis and Prompto prepared for bed and went to their own single beds, they played some more Kings knight before turning off the lights and closing their eyes. The room was quiet with only soft breaths gliding around the room as they both slept, outside the lights above shined in sync with the dull, soft glow of the street lamps. For once the world was peaceful.

Prompto slowing opened his drowsy, tired, narrow eyes as he began to adjust to being awake. He heard something, something had woken him up. _What was that?_ Sitting up Prompto looked from his left to his right around the room – slightly confused on what made that noise – until his eyes found his friend and his eyes widen in shock. Noctis was shaking and making small mumbling noises that sounded like he was scared? Filled with worry, Prompto quickly removed his duvet and scrambled over to Noctis’ bed – swiftly but quietly as to not wake anyone. Arriving at the princes’ side, Promptos’ concerned eyes rapidly scanned over his friend before he gently but firmly grabbed Noctis’ shoulders and started to lightly shake them, “Hey Noct, come on buddy wake up… Noct wake up”. Noctis replied with more trembling mummers and shaking. With no response or sign of waking up to Promptos’ actions and hushed words, he started to move a little more vigorously his words raising in volume “Noct, wake up!” Prompto whispered louder as he made sure to not wake anyone else but at the same time Prompto was getting more and more anxious about Noctis situation.

With one final shake of Noctis’ shoulder, the prince gasped awake startling Prompto. Noctis sat up, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. Looking at his face Prompto saw that his eyes were wide and full of fear and partly filled with water that threatened to spill. Promptos’ heart clenched at seeing the sight of his friend in such distress “hey, hey its ok you’re ok”, with Promptos’ soothing words Noctis eyes seemed to register where he was and as his eyes went over to Promptos’ he started to calm down.

Seeing his friend visibly relaxing but still a little tense and shook up, Promptos’ instincts to do whatever he could to calm Noctis down took over and he placed his hand on one of Noctis’ cheeks – slowly stroking up and down - drying his wet eyes. With Promptos’ soothing actions, Noctis leaned into his touch his eyes closing – he let out a deep sigh. For a while neither said anything, Noctis breathing went back to a steady pace and Prompto concentrated on making him relax – even after the hectic moment earlier, the room seemed heavenly peaceful with the two of them making the most of each other’s company. Then Prompto broke the silence, “do you want to talk about it?” he whispered gently, careful not to disturb Noctis’ relaxed state he didn’t want to ruin his friends’ mood and go back to how he was before.

Gradually, Noctis opened his eyes and looked at Prompto then he looked down as he started to speak “It was just a nightmare, really it’s just dumb......I-…. You-…um”, at that Noctis lost his voice and continued to stare downwards. Prompto looked at his friend with concern, he could tell Noctis was trying to shove it off as nothing but he could tell that his friend (although now calmer) was still hurting and Prompto wanted to help.

Using his hand on Noctis’ cheek, he tilted Noctis head so that he was looking at him once again, “It isn’t dumb Noct, whatever you saw is hurting you and I want to help. You can talk to me you know that, right buddy? You know I’m here for you right?”. In another situation Prompto may have been more embarrassed to say such words, especially when his brain would’ve caught up with his mouth and process what that could mean. But right now, that didn’t matter, Prompto just wanted Noctis to open up to him, to know that he could tell him anything. His overthinking of what he said previously and his thoughts that tell him what he should or shouldn’t have said can wait until later. Noctis came first.

Gazing into the blondes’ eyes, Noctis could see that he was being completely sincere and his words calmed Noctis’ thoughts as he took a shaky breath “I...I had failed everyone… every-…everyone was dead” he stopped there, taking a moment to force back the tears. Prompto waited patiently for his friend to continue, Noctis could take all night if he wanted to – Prompto would still listen to his friends’ every word – never leaving him.

“There was destruction everywhere... ev- everywhere we have been to, was nothing but rubble… Dads’ body laid by my feet as I walked along a dark narrow road seeing nothing but destruction… L- Luna was next to him, bl- blood all over her dress… Ignis and Gladio were next to each other a spear penetrated through both of them, the amount of blood…Shiva…and their faces” Once again Noctis stopped, no longer bothering to hold back his tears. Noctis’ eyes wandered back down for a second or maybe a minute Prompto didn’t know, but when they went back to his eyes – Noctis’ voice completely broke “Th- th- then… I saw y-you and I- I couldn’t take any more, I broke down in my dream – screaming…I…” a loud sob then broke form Noctis lips and as soon as Prompto heard the defeated sound, he instantly wrapped his arms around Noctis and started to rock him gently and whisper reassuring words, comforting him the best he could.

“I failed everyone… They were dead because of me” Noctis exclaimed in Promptos’ arms – his voice filled with sadness and so broken – it destroyed Promptos’ heart to hear his friend like this. Noctis had done nothing wrong in this whole journey, he didn’t deserve any of these thoughts or his nightmare and Prompto wanted to make sure he knew that. Carefully lifting Noctis’ head up from where it was resting on his shoulder, Prompto still firmly held onto Noctis while staring him straight in the eyes “You haven’t failed anyone, the bad things that have happened on this journey – none of them were your fault. Not one. Gladio and Ignis are fine, sleeping in the other room and I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere. You are the bravest, strongest and greatest person I know “, Prompto then smiled “and you’re not going to fail, I believe in you Noct.”

Many emotions were shown in Noctis eyes, he was overwhelmed with the appreciative words Prompto had just said and the way he said them with so much faith in Noctis. Noctis then cracked a smile, his tears had stopped and he was feeling a lot better. Seeing this, Prompto removed himself from Noctis and tried to lighten the mood again “so, we good now buddy?”

Noctis then gave him a full smile, “yeah, yeah we’re good”

“Good, cause I don’t know about you but I am EXHAUSTED” replied Prompto, exaggerating the last word.

Lying back down into his bed, Noctis looked at the blonde, “same, guess we better go to sleep before Ignis finds out we are still awake”

Chuckling, Prompto returned to his bed and got back under the duvets “Good point dude, Night Noct”

“Night Prompto”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoyed ma frens
> 
> If ya want leave a comment :)


	4. Peace and beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the previous night events Noctis wakes up revitalised - and the day only gets better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy!

 

The next morning, Noctis woke up more refreshed and revitalised than usually. Recently he hadn’t been getting the best night’s sleep and even though he slept a lot, it never seemed enough and the next morning he would always feel awful and tired like he never slept at all. But right now, he felt fine - great even. Glancing around his hotel room Noctis was surprised to find that for once he had woken up before Prompto. Looking more intently, Noctis noted intricate details he could see about the blondes’ resting face. _Peaceful, hair slightly messed up, mouth partly open…_

Waking up from his trance after realising he should probably stop staring, Noctis got out of his bed and headed to the bathroom to get himself washed up.

With no one wake other than him in the room, Noctis’ thoughts were louder in his mind and he started to think more deeply about last night. _Is last night’s event why I slept so well? Maybe it cleared my mind…Probably should thank Prompto for that._ Prompto had helped him out last night, he was patient and so kind with him, letting Noctis pour his bad thoughts out. Part of Noctis’ mind was really glad Prompto was there and heard him – otherwise Noctis’ wouldn’t know what he would’ve done. But the other part of his mind felt a bit stupid for bothering Prompto over such a childish thing as a nightmare. Sighing, Noctis returned back to the main room and looked over to Promptos’ bed to find him awake and looking back at him. Prompto face was covered in surprise for a second but then he flashed Noctis a bright smile (which Noctis returned with a smile one), “Morning Noct, wow surprising seeing you up so early what’s the occasion” Prompto jokingly asked while getting out of his bed.

“Dunno, guess I just felt like it” Noctis answered as he went to get his clothes so that he could get dressed. Noctis really hoped Prompto wouldn’t bring up what happened last night and he hoped Prompto wasn’t too concerned about him. Prompto had always looked out for the people he cared about, probably more than he did himself – so adding more worrying thoughts to his friend brain wasn’t something Noctis wanted to do. Plus, him breaking down last night was kind of embarrassing.

Before heading into the bathroom, Prompto took one last look at his friend. He could tell by Noctis’ movements that he was a little uncomfortable this morning and his eyes showed Prompto that he was stuck in his thoughts. Concluding that Noctis properly didn’t want to talk about last night and was probably still a little shaken up by it – Prompto made a mental note not to discuss it unless Noct wanted to. Gathering all this information in his head, Prompto decided that the best thing to do now is to talk about cheerier things – so that Noctis could feel more comfortable and wouldn’t stay in deep thought about last night. So Prompto distracted him.

“Hey Noct, while I was out taking photos I saw this most AMAZING spot by the beach. It was so pretty and it looked like it was a good place for fishing too. Soooo why don’t you and me head there so that I can get more pics and you can ace up your fishing skills”

Promptos’ cheery tune had successfully gotten Noctis’ attention and seeing how his friend was not going to bring up last night, Noctis felt his body relax and he felt less awkward and tense. With a smile, Noctis turned to look at the blonde and replied “Sure, I never got the chance to do any fishing yesterday. Sounds fun”, with a cocky grin Noctis continued “Plus then you can appreciate my awesome fishing skills as I catch the biggest fish you’ve ever seen”.

Noctis eyes had a small glint in them and his grin made Prompto smile brighter “Oh yeah? Well let’s hope you don’t disappoint. I’m expecting a ginormous fish Noct”. And with that Prompto turned away from Noctis and went into the bathroom – locking the door behind him.

The grin on Noctis face turned into a smile. With all his previous thoughts erased from his mind, and the thought of hanging out with Prompto all day popped up instead Noctis felt lighter than before. His smile lasted all the time it took for him and Prompto to be ready and to head for breakfast, where Ignis and Gladio were waiting for them.

 

“Oh look, the princess is awake” Gladio remarked as he saw Noctis come down the stairs Prompto following behind him. Gladio glanced at his watch “a bit early for you isn’t it Noct? Is there a fire?”

“ha ha very funny big guy” said Noctis in reply whiling shooting Gladio an unimpressed look.

Noctis and Prompto proceeded down the stairs then sat on the sofa opposite Gladio, as they did so Ignis appeared around the corner – eyes widening a little when he saw them all there.

“Noctis what are you doing up so early?” Ignis inquired, looking straight at Noctis while sitting in one of the chairs.

“Can we all just accept that I’m awake and drop it please? It’s not that big of a deal” Noctis groaned leaning his head back against the sofa, beside him he heard Prompto do a tiny chuckle (obviously trying to hide his laughter).

Grinning, Ignis said “Of course Noctis, I was merely curious that’s all” but that shitty grin he was sporting showed that it wasn’t just curiosity – he was taking the piss just like Gladio. Noctis sat back up with his head straight, groaning in irritation while glaring at both Gladio and Ignis. Then he looked over to Prompto who was stilling trying to hide his chuckles, noticing Noctis’ glare– Prompto ceased all sounds and gave him an innocent little smile.

“I hate you all”

“aw come on dude, Iggy and Gladio are only messing with ya” said Prompto, his smile grew in amusement looking at his friends’ stroppy face. Noctis only grumbled in response and hung his head low, Prompto turned his eyes from his friends sulking to Ignis “So Iggy, what’s happening with breakfast?”

“Gladio and I have decided that we would like to go to the stalls for breakfast, if that’s agreeable with you two?” Ignis replied. Gladio nodded in agreement “We have enough gil so I didn’t see a reason not to”. (Everyone had appeared to ignore the grumpy prince in favour of breakfast).

“Sounds good to me!” Prompto said enthusiastically, he turned to face Noctis “What do you say Noct? How about we go get some grub?”. Still in a bit of a sour mood, Noctis only mumbled in agreement and went towards the hotel exit. With Noctis quick exit, Prompto got up and quickly followed after him “hey Noct wait up dude!” he exclaimed as he started to jog after him.

Ignis and Gladio exited the hotel more slowly, smiling at the others display. They made idle chatter while catching up with the other two to the stalls.

 

After breakfast, the group split up after Noctis and Prompto had explained what they had planned to do that day. So, with a final comment of safety and a reminder to meet back at the hotel for lunch from Ignis, Noctis and Prompto headed towards the beach and Gladio and Ignis hanged around the stalls. The walk to the beach was pleasant, Prompto snapped pictures all the way there – appreciating how the sun affected the areas’ lighting, while Noctis just quietly walked beside him; quietly appreciating the view himself – with the meeting he had with Ardyn yesterday he never got a chance to properly enjoy Lestallum. It was nice.

As the got closer to the beach, Prompto pulled Noctis to slightly left and stopped when they had arrived in the spot he had found previously. “So, what ya think Noct? Pretty right?”

It took a moment for Noctis to respond – pretty was an understatement, he didn’t know much about lighting and angles like Prompto did but Noctis knew when he saw something worth looking at. And this was one of these things. They had arrived near the end of a beach; where the sun looked like it had been put up in a certain angle purposely so that it shone so brightly on the sea that it no longer looked a usual sky blue instead it was a perfect mixture of a clear, deep blue and emerald green, it blinded Noctis’ eyes. To his right was a giant, rock wall that (instead of looking grey and dull) looked like it was filled with diamonds scattered all along it. It wasn’t a secret, private spot or anything to his right Noctis saw the usual sea – you didn’t have to go far to find this place. Yet he hadn’t ever seen it, but Prompto had.

Turning to look at the blonde, Noctis’ eyes widened at the sight they saw. With where Prompto was standing slightly to Noctis’ left – the sun was reflecting off him perfectly too just like the sea. The light caught his hair so that it looked almost holy, his eyes had become so clear and bright that Noctis thought he could see every inch of Prompto eyes and whether they were blue or slightly purple, and his smile, goddamn his smile was, simply put, breath-taking – it showed some of his teeth but not all and they were so white. With all the features put together Prompto was pretty… like REALLY pretty. And he looked so happy.

Promptos’ smile toned down a little and he raised his eyebrow in question “umm Noct, you ok there buddy?”

Snapping out of his trance, Noctis turned from Prompto to the sea his face felt slightly hot “uh yea, yea I’m fine. Um you’re right Prom its really pretty”

Promptos’ smiled returned once more and he gave Noctis a slight pat on the back “see told ya, I know all the good spots dude”

Mercifully, Prompto didn’t bring up about him staring or about how his face was slightly red. He relaxed a bit more then and turned back towards his friend, flashing a smile “yeah well, let’s hope this ‘great’ spot of yours has fish.”, his eyes narrowed and smile disappeared “otherwise your spot sucks”

“aw come on dude, you can’t judge the spot on how many fishes it’s got”

“I can and I will”

Noctis proceeded towards the edge of the beach as he summoned his fishing rod and cast his line.

Shaking his head, Prompto took out his camera once more and started snapping some pics, “jeez Noct, is fish all you care about?”

“yep”

“wow rude, so ya don’t even care about your best buddy”

Noctis turned to him and gave him a blank face “and who would that be?”

Feigning hurt Prompto replied “ME, YOU ASS!”

Noctis tilted his head, appearing to be in thought “…nope” he turned back to the sea.

“WOW, ok first of all you’re an ass, secondly because you just said that I’m not taking you to anymore of my cool spots” he stated, sticking his tongue out at Noct the turning to go back to snapping photos. Noctis just snorted in reply and focused on catching fish. With his quiet surroundings; the only sounds being the shuffling of Promptos’ feet and the odd click of his camera – Noctis found himself in peace. Taking a quick glance to the blonde, Noctis face formed a small smile – Prompto just seemed to know what he needed and this spot, fishing and just hanging out was definitely what he needed today. The sights, the sounds, the atmosphere was just perfect. Maybe he took the blonde for granted, maybe he should voice his appreciation more often – although Prompto never complained, maybe Prompto already knew how much he appreciated him. Although, thinking back to their conversation on top of the motel, Prompto probably didn’t see himself as highly as he does – which didn’t sit right with Noctis. He hoped the words exchanged that night were enough for Prompto to see, even if it was just a little bit, how much he was really worth. Noctis tried to put those thoughts aside for now, there was no point in thinking about it now – not when Prompto had given him a perfect opportunity to relax. It was obvious the blonde was also enjoying their time there – so for now, Noctis knew Prompto was happy and so was he. And for now, that’s all that matters.

 

Above the beach where Prompto and Noctis were situated at, a pair of eyes were looking through the telescopes watching the two beings, “ah look at those smiles…everything seems so great for you right now doesn’t it prince of Lucis.... hmm not for longs I’m afraid.” Removing himself from the telescopes Ardyn turned around and headed back towards the town centre, with a smirk on his face and a cunning glint in his eye, “let the games begin”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update - to those (if any) who actually want to read this story until the very end, i know it can be a pain when the author takes FOREVER to update (i have waited on soooooo many). 
> 
> Anyway hope ya enjoyed, i'm trying to improve my writing as the story goes on - i hope its ok.
> 
> To those reading, what yo doing? - go read some decent fanfics :)  
> Seriously though, thanks for reading. plz leave a comment if ya wish.


	5. The storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The days in Lestallum were passing and they were pleasant.   
> With the car still being fixed, the prince and co spend another night in the hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy my frens :)
> 
> Apologies for any mistakes but i just really wanted to release a chapter :D

The rest of the day went by quite quickly. After spending a few hours at the beach, Noctis and Prompto reunited with Gladio and Ignis at the hotel where they all agreed to go out once again for lunch. Because of their frequent spending and eating out, Ignis insisted that they should take on some hunts – to replenish their savings. After completely six hunts, everyone was tired – the hunts weren’t that difficult and they completed them without using one potion – but with that many hunts completed in only an hour or so, they still used up much of their energy.

Tired; Noctis and Prompto returned back to the beach to relax – most of their time there was spent with either Noctis fishing or napping and Prompto taking photos of whichever his friend decided to do. While Ignis was cooking at a small campsite they had made just outside Lestallum (as they didn’t want to spend the money they had just earned so soon)- telling the others to leave him be while he cooked as any help they would try to offer would only distract him and prolong the meal and Gladio went back to the hotel to meet up with Iris again – they spent most of their time asking about their days and some fighting techniques.

Ignis had called the other three back once the food was ready and they all retired to the hotel – where everyone had spent time in Noctis and Promptos’ room, playing Kings Knight and a round of cards (where Ignis had won, much to Noctis’ displeasure), after that Gladio and Ignis excused themselves and returned to their own rooms. Noctis and Prompto played one more game of Kings Knight before calling it a night.

It was a simple, but nice day for them all.

There was a storm that night. The high, violent force of the wind bashed its way through the streets – taking anything loose or light with it. Thunder cracked above in the dark, gloomy, grey skies – performing a beat of misery and despair. Anyone outside having a night out, soon evacuated to the nearest shelter, all of them prayed it wouldn’t last. This weather wasn’t predicted nor wanted by the people in Lestallum, for a town filled with stalls a zephyr was bad enough, but this was just chaos. Then the power went out. Streets after streets filled with darkness as Lestallum was plunged in a pitch-black abyss. Luckily by this time anyone out of the streets had already found a safe place to stay, some had found shelter in the hotel the prince and his companions were currently occupying.

The current storm was what had woken the prince up in the night. Slowing sitting up, Noctis blinked the sleep out of his eyes as his took in his surroundings. It was still dark – that much was clear, but it was light enough that Noctis could see that bed next to him was empty. A minor state of panic took over him – questioning where his friend could be. But before this state could develop any further, he searched the right part of the room to see Prompto standing at the window – peeking through the curtains. He found himself to relax once more. He got up from his bed and joined Prompto by the window.

Prompto appeared to have only just noticed him as he jumped a little when his eyes landed on Noctis.

“ah sorry Noct, did I wake you up?” Prompto questioned, thinking that the prince must’ve have heard him moving around moments before.

Shaking his head Noctis replied “nah, a loud sound woke me up. It sounded like thunder”

“Yeah dude, there’s a pretty big storm going on out there.” Prompto said turning back to looking out of the window.

Beside him Noctis also took a peek outside. Seeing the destruction of the stalls and the strong wind Noctis could undoubtedly say that saying this storm was just ‘pretty big’ was a complete understatement.

A knock sounded at the door, Prompto left the window and Noctis’ side to go answer it. Curious as to who it could be, Noctis looked a final time out of the window before joining Prompto who was turning the handle to open the door. Ignis and Gladio were both standing there -both looking rather tired.

“are you two alright?” Ignis asked.

“yeah, we’re fine Iggy” Prompto stated, then he moved aside so they could enter the room and shut the door after them.

“see? Told ya the kids would be fine”

“You can never be too careful Gladio” Ignis said firmly, looking straight at Gladio before turning to look at Noctis and Prompto. “Because of the commotion of the storm I just wanted to make sure you were both ok. Plus, I thought I should inform you that many people have sought shelter here in the hotel from the storm – so it may be pretty noisy and hectic downstairs.”

“Is everyone alright?” Prompto asked. He had seen the destruction of the storm from the window and knew that if people weren’t careful, the storm could easily hurt many.

Ignis gave a small, reassuring smile “luckily, there have been no reports of fatal injuries or deaths. So that’s some good news”

Putting on a bright smile, Prompto let out a large, loud sigh “whew, that’s great. So, looks like this stormy situation isn’t so bad, no point being all gloomy about it.”

Everyone let themselves smile a little then, Prompto was right – the fact that people were safe and no one was hurt should be a good enough reason to not think too negatively about the weather.

“So Ignis, how long is the storm gonna last?” Noctis spoke up. “Cause I wanna get some sleep tonight”

Ignis pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed “unfortunately Noctis, you nor anyone might not get much sleep tonight. No one’s exactly sure how long the storm will last – but it is predicted to last throughout the remainder of the night”

Noctis frowned at that “No sleep? Greeeeeeaaaaaat”. He felt a light punch on his arm and he saw Prompto giving him a smile.

“aw come on buddy, like you haven’t slept through worse.” Prompto chuckled “you can sleep through anything and we’ve all had to sleep through Gladio’s’ loud ass snoring.

“HEY!”

“Sorry big guy but it’s true.”

“I was thinking that since we’re all awake we could all help out downstairs before we return to our beds” Ignis interrupted “It would be doing a good deed to the people of Lestallum”

“I don’t see why not” Noctis replied.

With all four agreeing with the idea, they all got changed and headed downstairs to the hotels’ lobby. Filled with people the lobby was quite chaotic. There wasn’t much room – people were cramped in together so that as many people as possible could fit in the hotel. Rushing around the staff had tired faces and hectic movements, as they tried to make all occupants as comfortable as possible. Some were handing out towels so that people could try to dry off, others were passing out blankets and duvets for warmth and comfort.

Ignis walked up to a man behind the reception desk, with the other three following behind. “Excuse me”

“Yes, sir how may I help you?”

“Me and my companions were wondering that since the hotel is quite busy, whether you would like any help?”

The man behind the desk appeared to be relived as his tired expression brightened slightly “we would highly appreciate that, thank you”

Smiling back, Ignis replied “where would yo- “

Before Ignis could finish, the lights went off – submerging the whole hotel in darkness. The quiet chatter from the crowd earlier turned into worried murmurs as everyone struggled to see who was who and what was what.

Clearing his throat, the receptionist turned to the figure he assumed was Ignis “well sir if it isn’t too much trouble, could one of you go downstairs to the power room and try to turn the lights back on. I would try myself but I’m not that technically minded you see and I have no idea how, plus, because of the weather help isn’t arriving anytime soon.” Sighing the receptionist continued “unless, of course, none of you know much about tech and machines either”

Quickly thinking back, Ignis struggled to think of any scenarios where he had learned any skills to help with tech “I’m afraid I’m not that good with my technology either, unless it involves cooking appliances”. He turned to face what he thought was Noctis’ figure “no point in asking you Noct, you can’t even operate a microwave properly”.

Noctis grumbled in embarrassment and casted his head down but he didn’t deny the point.

“Gladio what about you?”

Gladio shook his head “Nah, sorry Iggy, but I ain’t got a clue about that kind of stuff”

“Hmm this is quite a predicament”. A thought appeared in Ignis’ mind, he turned once more to the figure he was pretty sure was Prompto as even with the lack of light he could still see the blondes stuck up hair slightly.

“Prompto I do believe you know your way around tech, yes?”

“Well I guess, I still remember some tech stuff I did in school”

“Could you try to get the lights back on then?”

Prompto pause for a short moment. On one hand he didn’t want to explore a dark hotel (that was kinda creepy with the lack of light) but on the other hand he did want to help out everyone who was trapped because of the storm, after all, these people had been through enough for one night.

“I guess I could give it a shot Iggy”

“Splendid”

Gladio leaned forward a lightly pushed what he thought was Promptos’ shoulder “just don’t break anything kid “

“You just pushed me Gladio not Prompto” Noctis grumbled.

The big guy just shrugged his shoulders (even though they probably didn’t see it) “not my fault you’re both the same height, I can’t see shit.”

“Yes, well that’s what we’re hopping to fix” Ignis said, he addressed the receptionist once more “our friend Prompto would be willing to try to restore the lights”

“ah thank you so much sir” the man appeared to be reaching into his pocket “here’s the key to the doors to the right of the reception desk, then just go down the stairs and you’ll be in the right room”

Reaching, partially blinding, Prompto finally grabbed the key. “ok, got it. I’ll try not to be too long”

“We’ll been waiting here in lobby, working as best we can in this lighting” Ignis said.

“Ok see you guys later “

Out of the corner of his eye, Noctis saw Prompto starting to walk away from them to the barely visible door.

“Wait Prom!” he called, heading towards the shadowed figure.

He saw Prompto stop as he got closer to him “yeah Noct?”

“Be careful. With this darkness it’s gonna be easily to trip down those stairs “

Smiling, Prompto cheerily replies “don’t worry Noct, I’m gonna use my phone light to see. I’m not planning on falling down any stairs dude”

The phone light idea wasn’t a bad one, Noctis made a mental note to use his while helping in the lobby and to suggest it to Ignis and Gladio too, (actually, when he thought about it, they should have come up with that earlier). “Alright. I’ll see you later”

“Yep, see ya”. With one last wave Prompto headed toward the door and opened it, revealing an even darker room with stairs leading down. Taking his phone out of his pocket Prompto turned on his flashlight and started to descend.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that part in my notes (if you read these things) that always says its gonna get more deep...well i lied to you once again (soz), on one hand i wanted to get deeper into the story but i also don't want to rush it and also i felt like i haven't uploaded in a while so i wanted to get a chapter out.  
> But now the gang is separated and i PROMISE (cross my heart) that in the next chapter shit will go down (pardon my french) so i hope you look forward to that (unless u like these pleasant moments where everything is ok- but i know it probably gets boring and repetitive after a while) - i know i'll enjoy writing it :)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading hope ya enjoyed- drop a comment if ya want to.


	6. The hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Prompto gone, Noctis, Ignis and Gladio help out in the overcrowded lobby. but when Prompto returns, things aren't right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy :)
> 
> Plz forgive any mistakes

After Prompto had left, Noctis, Ignis and Gladio went about their own tasks assigned to them by the receptionist. The tasks mainly compromised of helping with handing out duvets and giving some people torches – which were found in the emergency cupboard by the reception desk.

The power was still out so, after Noctis had told Ignis about Promptos’ earlier idea, they were all using their phones’ flashlight. Unfortunly, Noctis phone was already low on power so after using it for light, the phones’ battery life had gone down to 2%.

“shit”

Next to him Ignis heard his sound of displeasure “Is something the matter Noctis?” he shone his light next to him, seeing Noctis’ irritated face.

“I forgot to charge my damn phone” Noctis sighed “it’s only got a little bit of life left”

“Did you not think of charging your phone in your room before you went to bed?”

“I forgot” he grumbled in reply.

“Well then Noct, I suggest you return to your room. With your phone out of charge and the lack of torches, I’m afraid there’s not much you can do here” Ignis patted his shoulder “but I’m sure everyone’s grateful for what you’ve already done. Now why don’t you try to get some sleep”

Noctis had wanted to help and, with Prompto still busy, he was going to return to an empty room. He didn’t like the idea of returning to his room at all. But Ignis was right, he had done all he can do, it’s best for him to just go back to bed. Although he doubts he’ll be able to sleep.

“Alright I’ll go back to bed”

“Goodnight Noctis”

“Night Iggy”

With the little charge he had left, Noctis used his phone to make his way towards his room. It died on him by the time he had gotten into the room.

“brilliant” his voice dripped with sarcasm, he tried to navigate through the now completely dark room.

Just as he was about to reach the window – to see how bad the storm was and to let in as much light as possible – he heard a voice sound behind him.

“Hello, your highness”

Before he had time to react, Noctis felt a sharp pain in the back on his head and the next thing he knows is that he’s falling to the ground before everything went even darker than before.

“Nighty night, sweet dreams”

 

Prompto almost wished he never agreed to do this. He was currently standing in the room the receptionist told him to go to. Luckily, he had found his way down the stairs without even tripping and with his phone light he easily found the room. The problem was that it was very creepy in the room, with the lack of light and the cold, damp feeling in the air, Prompto felt extremely uncomfortable.

But he had said he would try and he was going to make damn well sure that he would keep his word and try to help the people upstairs as much as he can.

Using the light, Prompto found what he assumed controlled the backup power for the hotel. After messing with a few switches and buttons, he heard a small sound then he sighed in relief as the lights above him turned on. Feeling quite proud of himself, Prompto headed back up the stairs to see how everyone else was doing.

With Noctis dealt with, Ignis walked into the backroom where Gladio was currently trying to find more towels.

Seeing Ignis enter, Gladio asked “where’s Noct?”

“His phone was out of charge, so he has returned to his room”

Gladio shook his head with a small grin on his face “can’t even remember to charge his phone, unbelievable”

“hmm, did you find anymore towels Gladio?”

“not yet”

Seeing as he had nothing else to do, with all the duvets he had been given already distributed, Ignis decided that to give Gladio a hand. While helping to search, Ignis eye caught the sight over a shadow figure behind Gladio, “Gladio, watc- “

Ignis saw Gladio hit the floor and he soon followed.

“well, that was easier than I thought it would be…gentleman let the games begin”

 

Prompto promptly returned to the main lobby. Seeing the lights on confirmed that he had succeeded in his task. Smiling to himself, Prompto took a glace around the room – seeing people who looked much happier now that they could see which just made him smile more. But something was off…where was everyone? Taking another look around, Prompto confirmed that Noctis, Ignis and Gladio were all missing. Did they already go back to bed?

Prompto felt a small tap on his shoulder, he turned to see the receptionist giving him an appreciative smile “Thank you for getting the lights back on”

Reaching into his pocket, Prompto gave the man his key back “It was no problem, I was happy to help” he rubbed the back of his head “hey, I don’t suppose you know where my friends are, do you?”  


“oh, the gentleman from earlier? I saw one go back to his room, while the other two went to the backroom” the receptionist pointed to the door at the opposite side of the room “they went in there looking for more towels, they haven’t come out yet”.

He gave the man his thanks then headed towards the backroom door, he would check upstairs later. Opening the door, he found the room to be empty, not a person in sight. Slightly confused, he headed upstairs.

Firstly, he checked Gladio and Ignis’ room as it was the one that came first. He brought up his hand and knocked the door “Gladio? Ignis? You in there?”

With no reply, he opened the door and checked the whole room including the bathroom he got the same results as the backroom. Empty. His mind became a little erratic, thinking of all scenarios that could’ve happened – all of them were bad. Quickly he exited the room and went towards his and Noctis’ room, all the way he tried to calm down. _It’s ok prom, it’s ok. They’re all fine - maybe they’re all hanging in the other room_.

Upon arriving at his room, he took a deep breath before he flung the door open to find the room…empty. He really started to panic them, rushing through his room to check in the bathroom. Promptos’ earlier made up scenarios haunted his mind.  _What if they’re hurt? What if they got caught up in the storm…what if they just left him behind?_

He tried to settle his mind. One more look around the room revealed something that wasn’t there when he and Noct had went to bed earlier that night. Sitting on his pillow was an envelope with his name inscribed on the front. He walked over to the bed and picked up the envelope. Turning it over he saw a seal with the letter A. Curious, he turned over the envelope and opened it. Inside was a letter – his mind was screaming at him that this was bad, that he shouldn’t read it. But it was the only thing in the room that wasn’t here before his friends disappeared. If there was even just a slight chance that this letter could help him, he was willing to ignore the warnings and read it.

Praying that the letter held some answers, he started to read:

_My dear Prompto,_

_I do hope you are well and that you’ve enjoyed your time in Lestallum. But now I’m afraid that this is when the fun ends – I hope you made the most of it._

_I gather you’re feeling quite lonely right now, yes?_

_No need to panic, your companions are safe…for now._

_If you want them back, then all you have to do is come back home. Do you still remember it?_

_Come back to the place you were born... or rather made._

_Your friends and I will be waiting for you there. Make sure you arrive alone and as quick as possible, I only have so much patience._

_Best regards_

_Ardyn_

His hands were trembling, so much so that he struggled to read the final lines. Why the hell had Ardyn taken everyone? And why the hell did he want him to return to that godforsaken place?

Too many questions filled Promptos’ mind, at least now he knew where his friends were. And he was going to get them back.

With the letter in hand and a purpose in his step Prompto packed his and Noctis’ belongings, he proceeded into the other room where he packed Gladios’ and Ignis’ bags as well. His hands were full when he went back downstairs to the lobby and signed out at the reception desk. Once again, the receptionist thanked him and Prompto replied with a smile and a “no problem”. He exited the hotel with a few questioning glances from the guests in the lobby – probably wondering why he would WANT to go outside with the current weather, when the hotel was lighted, warm and comforting.

While everything had been happening inside the hotel, time had passed and the storm had calmed down and now there was nothing but some light rain and strong (but not dangerous) winds – even some citizens were back outside trying to fix their stalls for the morning.

Now that he was outside, Prompto wondered about how he was going to get to Ardyn – he was rushing so much with the packing and leaving so that he would get there in time that he never planned out what exactly he was going to do. The Regalia was out of the question as it was still being fixed. As much as he loved Chocobos, they wouldn’t get him there quick enough. Those were the only two main transportation he had used on this journey. He had to think of a way to get there and fast, everyone was counting on him and he wasn’t going to allow himself to let them down.

Deep in thought, Prompto paced back and forth trying to think as hard as he could when a thought hit him. He could always rent a vehicle. There were plenty of places to rent cars, he had always just ignored them as they already had a mode of transport. Looking back on their journey so far, he tried to think of the nearest place he could rent a car, when he remembered a garage not far from where he was that also allowed you to rent cars for a small fee depending on how long you were going to use it for. Problem was that even though it was nearby, it was still too far to walk – he only had so much time after all. He would have to ride a chocobo to the garage, so taking the bags wasn’t going to be an option.

Eventually Prompto thought of a simple plan that would at least get him as far as the garage. As a small thank you for helping, he asked the receptionist to look after the bags while he was gone - who agreed to do it. The only things he removed from the bags were some potions Ignis and Gladio had gathered before. Now that the bags were taken care of and he had all the items he needed, Prompto rented a chocobo and set off to the garage. He just hoped it was open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY SHIT HAS GONE DONE.  
> Told ya didn't i?   
> This is just the beginning my dudes.
> 
> Leave a comment if ya want :)


	7. The garage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the clock ticking, Prompto sets off to get his friends back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy :)

Getting to the garage was fairly easy. His chocobo never slowed and since many were still sheltering from the leftover winds of the storm, the traffic was minimal. However, upon arriving at the garage, Prompto saw that the lights were off, he prayed someone was still there. Jumping off his chocobo, Prompto wondered towards the garage entrance and knocked on its door.

“Hello? Anyone there?” His voice was loud but still a little shaky, the letter burned in his pocket making him feel like a huge weight had been put on his shoulders. And if he messed up, everything would be his fault.

He stood there for about a minute (although it felt much longer), losing his calmness quickly. Desperate, he knocked once more. The door opened revealing an elderly lady, who was staring up at him in confusion. “Can I help you?” Although it was evident that she was vastly muddled as to why she had a visitor, her voice was still kind.

“I’m so sorry to disturb you miss, but I really need a car and your garage is the only place I can get one”

She gave him a guilty look “I’m so sorry dear boy, but all cars have been rented out – people were in a rush to get to shelter you see”

Feeling any hope left in him vanish, Prompto tried his best to give the lady a smile “ah I see, um sorry for wasting your time” he turned to leave.

“Wait!”

Hearing the elders voice once more Prompto stopped and turned back to her.

“Tell me young man, how important is it that you get a car?”

His eyes widened in surprise at the odd question, he answered “It's very important. My friends need me right now and the only way I can get to them quick enough is with a car”. He decided to not tell the lady all the details, firstly because it would take too long, and he was on a time limit and secondly because Ardyn had clearly stated to come alone and Prompto had a feeling that if he told the lady everything she would call help for him.

She gave him a smile “well then, I might be able to help you out”

Prompto brow arched in question. “Pardon me miss, but I thought you said that all the cars had been rented”

“They have. But I have another vehicle here that can still get you to your friends quickly”. She moved past him and headed towards what looked like a storage facility. “Follow me”

Curiosity seeped through Prompto as he followed behind. He watched as the lady took some keys out of her pocket, bend down to insert the key and lift the garage door open.

Inside, the garage lights flickered on as she and Prompto entered. Then he saw it. A pure black motorcycle stood in the centre of the garage, the lights directly hitting it making it shine clearly, Prompto could see that it was either new or very well looked after.

The garage owner saw Promptos' eyes as they took in the bike, filled with awe. She knew the boy wasn’t telling her the whole story about why he needed a car, but the boy had such an innocent yet downhearted look like something was troubling him that she knew she had to help him out. After all she'd rather see a man at his age smile than have a face filled with disappointment and sadness.

“you like her?”

Prompto had to tear his eyes from the magnificent bike to look at the lady. “she’s beautiful”

She smiled at that “Good. She was my husbands before he passed and now she’s yours”

The boy’s face showed so much surprise and shock that it amused her.

“I-I can’t take her. It was your husbands’ she must mean a lot to you”

The lady shook her head “no, no my dear boy. My husband meant a lot to me, this“ she pointed to the bike “is just a possession. The memories of my husband mean more to me than this”

“s-still it wouldn’t be right for me to take the bike”

Shaking her head at the boys’ stubbornness she replied, “I know that if my husband was alive today he would want you to have the bike, he always loved hanging around with his friends and going on small adventures with them around the countryside” She patted Prompto on the shoulder “Now do the bike and my husband a favour and take her on one more adventure”

Touched by the woman’s words and knowing that she wasn’t going to back down on him having it, Prompto nodded his head “Alright, I’ll take her.” Adding “I-I promise to take good care of her”.

“Don’t worry about the bike, just make sure you get to your friends ok – with these strong winds you’ve got to be careful”

“I will. Thank you so much... umm... sorry I never asked your name?” Prompto felt a little rude that he had just barged into the garage asking for a car and then agreeing to take the bike without even knowing the lady’s’ name first.

With that one sentence the lady wholly confirmed her first instincts about the boy, she smiled warmly at him “It’s Andrea”. She didn’t give her last name, knowing that since the boy was so polite he would call her by it and she would rather him use her first name than be formal.

“Nice to meet ya Andrea, I’m Prompto. Thanks again for the bike”. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet “um how much do you want for it? I don’t have much gil, but I can- “

She cut him off “No money will be necessary dear, I’m just happy the bike is being ridden again”. Before he could protest or insist on giving her something, the lady turned from him and towards a rack – upon it sat a helmet. The helmet was black like the bike and had a black tinted visor. She took it off the rack and handed it to Prompto.

“Here you are, safety first”. She reached into her pocket once more “and here’s the key for the old girl”

Forgetting his insisting money idea (as it was blatantly obvious that she wasn’t going to accept anything) Prompto took the helmet and the keys and sat on the bike.

_He suited the bike_ , she thought. “Now, I’m hoping after all this you know how to ride a bike?”

“Yeah, I got my licence a few years back” He gave an embarrassed chuckle “I thought they were cool, ya know? But I never actually got a chance to buy my own – I could never afford it”

Softly chuckling, Andrea said “Well now here’s your chance”.

“Yeah, thank you”

She nodded her head at the boys constant thanking “Stop thanking me and get a move on already, you’ve got friends waiting remember?”

“oh, yeah” With Andreas’ kindness and the warmth her felt from chatting with her in the cozy garage, Promptos’ mind stop feeling so heavy with worry. He didn’t forget about why he was at the garage in the first place -  he couldn’t forget, not when he knew that his friends were in trouble, but it was nice to take a break from the dire situation he found himself in.

He put on the helmet and started the bike. He exchanged a final wave to Andrea and then drove off.

 

Noctis woke to a throbbing pain in his head and an aching feeling in his wrists. He tried to move but he couldn’t – confusion swept into his mind as he tried to open his eyes blinking away the splotches of darkness in his sight.

With his sight cleared, he inspected the room. He found himself in a large grey room with no furniture and no decorations on the wall, he was currently placed on the higher part of the room that was almost like a balcony with railing separating him and the ground/bottom floor. Trying to move once again, Noctis discovered that his wrists were tied to the wall on either side of his head and his ankles were also tied together to the wall. His head filled with more confusion and slight irritation as he tried to recall his last memory.

He remembered the hotel, the storm and helping the staff, but then…he had returned to his room because of his phones’ charge and then after that he had felt a sharp pain before falling into darkness.

His remembrance only caused more questions but one of the main ones definitely was: who had knocked him out?

Hearing a moan, Noctis sharply and rapidly tuned his head to his right – which he instantly regretted as he felt more pain. He hissed and clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the pain to subside. As it did, he opened his eyes once more and saw the cause of the moan. Ignis was tied up just like he was and next to him was Gladio – who appeared completely unconscious.

“Ignis, Ignis are you ok?”

He saw Ignis open his eyes, blink in confusion and turn to face him. “Noctis? Where the hell are we?” Ignis turned to his right and saw Gladio next to him “What happened?”

“I don’t know, last thing I remembered was being in my room and then a pain at the back of my head, then just darkness.”

Ignis tried to gather his thoughts, in situations like these it was best to be calm. “I have similar memories, I was in the backroom with Gladio, then…” Ignis’ expression turned from thoughtful to sour “Ardyn”.

Noctis gave Ignis a confused “huh?”

“Ardyn” Ignis repeated “He was behind Gladio when we were in the backroom and knocked him out, before I had chance to react I believe he knocked me out as well”.

Nodding in understanding Noctis replied “He must’ve knocked me out too then”. _Well at least that answers one of my questions,_ he thought.

Interrupting their conversation, a deep, pain filled groan was heard. They turned their heads to see Gladio starting to stir.

“Gladio are you ok? Please respond to me” Ignis calmly asked, as he quickly inspected Gladios' body to see if there were any signs of particularly bad wounds.

Another groan escaped Gladios’ lips before he opened his eyes and turned to look at the others. “hmm Noctis? Iggy? Da hell is happening?”

“we don’t know, all we know is that Ardyn knocked us out” Ignis replied.

Gladios’ face twisted in anger “that bastard, wait till I get my hands on him”

Seeing both Ignis and Gladio safe and awake gave some relief to Noctis. The pain in his head had mainly gone away and he was thinking much more clearly now. Turning to look at his friends, he felt a sudden pain in his chest as he came to realise something.

“hey guys, where’s Prompto?”

Ignis and Gladio both turned to Noctis. “Wasn’t he fixing the power at the hotel?” Gladio asked.

The relief from earlier was quickly overpowered with worry “Y-yeah but where is he now?” Noctis’ voice was shaky, he didn’t even try to hide it – right now he was more concerned with where his blonde was.

As the voice of reason, Ignis calmly answered “Perhaps he is still at the hotel” Seeing how his words did nothing to reduce the panic in Noctis' eyes he continued, “If Ardyn had taken Prompto like he had with us Noctis, he would be tied up like we are. There is no reason for Ardyn to put Prompto somewhere else – therefore he is likely still at the hotel”

Noctis slowly nodded his head at the suggestion, Ignis was right if Ardyn had Prompto then he would be with them. Still even with the thought that the blonde was most likely at the hotel, Noctis’ mind still raced with worry, what if they can’t get out of here? Has Prompto even noticed that he’s gone? What if he never sees Prompto again? That last thought struck Noctis’ heart painfully, before he could dwell on it for too long Noctis shook his head out of those thoughts and focused on the present. He had to get out of here.

Just as Noctis’ mind was trying to think of any ideas, his ears focused on a sound getting louder and louder. It sounded like…footsteps.

“Oh I see you are all awake” Ardyn stepped closer to the three “Marvellous"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Andrea is just a random person i made up on the spot but i actually reallllyyyy like her character - she just a sweet lady. tbh i don't even know if Andrea is a good name but oh wellllll  
> Also look at all the stuff now happening, fancyyyyyy
> 
> btw i have tumblr now (am i cool now?) it's really new and its mainly just Promptis - i'm not gonna lie.  
> I'll probably just be posting when i update a chapter of there and i might even post some of my shitty art ;) we shall see.  
> so if ya want to check it out here's da link (If the link is wrong or dosen't work then i'm sorreh):  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lexzera
> 
> As always leave a comment if ya want ;)


	8. Let the show begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto reaches his destination.
> 
> Ardyn puts on a show for Noctis, Ignis and Gladio.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy :)

With the wind speeds still high, during the whole drive it smashed against Promptos’ whole body with his head the only thing being protected with the helmet. Still he rode on. He never took a break even when the wind tilted his bike slightly on a muddy road, which caused it to skid but he kept himself and the bike balanced. The bikes’ speed never wavered as Prompto pushed it to go as fast as it could within the speed limits – storm or not people could still be driving, and he didn’t want to cause any accidents.

The sky was still a gloomy black and the storm had caused some of the street lights to turn off as some areas were suffering from power outages, other lights had been knocked over from the wind and were now destroyed on the floor. Because of all this, visibility was limited – he narrowed his eyes in concentration as he reached the final turning. He was almost there.

Despite the horrible conditions he enjoyed the ride, the bike made him feel a sense of freedom he had never felt before. It was new and refreshing. It had helped with his nerves and cleared his thoughts.

Then he spotted it. The place where his miserable excuse for a childhood had occurred. He didn’t forget this place, but he tried his hardest to never think about it. Sometimes he had had nightmares in the night when he couldn’t control what he thought, those nights became less frequent the more time he had spent with Noctis. The fun memories he had from spending time with his best friend had overrun most of the bad ones. He still remembered them yes, but his thoughts of Noctis and their time together was what was on Promptos’ mind now. He enjoyed every second of his time with the prince, even when it was just them two laying around on a Sunday – with them just waking up after their sleepover at the princes’ apartment. A very tired Noctis and a little bit more awake Prompto would be just hanging on the sofa playing video games until Ignis came to make them breakfast. Looking on them times now, made Prompto more determined to enter the giant stronghold now in front of him. He wanted to make more memories to look back on, mainly though he just wanted his friends to be safe.

The building was just how he remembered, a tall structure with grey, dirty walls and a huge wooden door with mental inscriptions on it, there was no windows and the only way in and out was that one door. He remembered how other inmates had tried for weeks to find any kind of secret passage or whole in the wall to escape through, no one ever found one, eventually they all gave up. Some had tried to make their own passage by digging with whatever they could find, using rocks and scraps of glass, they had only been able to make dents in the walls and floors, then by the next day any progress they had made had been filled up. The men inside hadn’t even bothered to punish those who had tried to escape – it was so futile that there was no point in punishing an attempt that everyone knew was impossible, the puny tries at escaping were laughable to the guards. Until the day he got out, no other prisoner had ever escaped. After he had, the whole place was shut down and the remaining prisoners were free to run to wherever they wished.

Prompto climbed the stairs towards the door, out of instinct he considered knocking instead he wrapped his hand on the handle and pushed it down hoping that it wasn’t locked. It wasn’t. The door slowly pushed open and the insides of the fortress were shown to him.

He had come back, this time he was taking his friends back with him. No matter the cost, they were going to live through this, they were going to get home.

“I’m back”.

 

Noctis’ blood boiled at the sound of his captor, he was struggling to keep his emotions hidden. Gladio let his all out.

“You bastard! The hell do you want with us?”

Gladios’ outburst only brought a smirk to Ardyns’ face. “Now, now Gladio is that any way to speak to your esteemed host?” He stepped closer from the shadows, headed across the large room and climbed the stairs leading to the three prisoners. “I do hope you’re all comfortable. I’ve also taken the liberty of putting on a live show for you”.

“The hell you on about?” Gladios’ anger hadn’t dissolved, not even a little.

Ardyn simply continued to smirk, looking at them all in the eye one by one.

Seeing that Gladios’ outbursts weren’t getting him to talk, Ignis tried a calmer approach to get answers from their captor. “What is this show you speak of?”, although his tone was level and calm Ignis felt just as furious at Ardyn as Gladio was – his eyes stared into Ardyns’ with no emotion letting through as he waited for his answer.

“Well I see at least one of you have manners. My dear guests the show I’m about to present is a tale of self-discovery, of a boy trying to rescue his friends”. He turned to Noctis, his grin only widening as he continued, “I do believe that you’ll be interested in the star of our show; your dear Prompto”.

At the mention of his name, Noctis eyes widened instantly in surprise then narrowed. “What have you done with Prompto?”, Although it was a question, Noctis’ tone made it sound like a demand; determined with a slight hint of hidden rage, he faintly gritted his teeth.

“Nothing, nothing at all” Ardyn raised his hands in mock surrender. “The boy is coming on his own, I didn’t force him to.”

Noctis snorted in disbelief, “Yeah right, why the hell would he come here willingly?”

“Noctis” Ignis warned, trying to tell the prince to be cautious of his words and his tone – the last thing they needed was to enrage a man who had them at his mercy.

Noctis ignored him, he didn’t care how he sounded to Ardyn, he wanted – no, he _needed_ to know if Prompto was alright. If Ardyn had cause any harm to him, Noctis swore he would raise hell and make sure Ardyn would pay.

“Did you not listen to my earlier description of the play dear prince? I told you, our young hero has come to rescue his friends.” Ardyn stepped closer to where Noctis was chained and grabbed hold of his chin pulling Noctis’ face closer, “If you weren’t so foolish and ignorant, he wouldn’t have to come, and all would be well – you would all be in Lestallum enjoying yourselves. So really your highness this is your fault, after all the only thing I did was write a letter to the boy telling him of your disappearances” He let go of Noctis and stepped back from the prince. “Remember that as you watch your friend suffer through this marvellous stronghold”.

Noctis’ thoughts froze, and his mouth refused to function, was this really his fault? He knew that Ardyn was trying to mess with his mind, to hurt him but… if he hadn’t been so easily kidnapped, would Prompto be by his side right now? Would he see his friend come from the power room successful with a smile on his face? Would they all retire to bed and would he wake up to Prompto, insisting on doing something fun for the morning?

Wordlessly, Ardyn stood to the side so that the prince and co could see the room clearly, he activated a switch which caused a screen to lower in front of him and the others. Looking at the prince with such a lost and hopeless expression, gave Ardyn a deep sense of pride -  he could see that the princes’ mind was racing, considering what he had said. He was probably blaming himself.

Staring at the screen, Ignis questioned its existence and what Ardyn planned to show them, while Gladio was getting more pissed off at this game Ardyn was dragging them through. Noctis was so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t even noticed it yet. Proudly, Ardyn presented the screen as though it was a great wonderment of art, “Gentleman, let the show begin”.

The screen flickered to life, first it only showed a blank white nothingness then it flickered once again to show a room with a large wooden door. Not only was the image of a room on the screen but also a date and time in the bottom right hand side of the screen, Gladio recognised it instantly.

“This is security footage”

“Oh, bravo Gladio, that’s a very astute observation. Yes, this is security footage of this building, currently we are looking at the entrance – just a reminder to you gentleman that this footage is live”

Gladio turned his head as best he could to look at Ardyn “And why are you showing us this footage?”

“You’ll see”.

They all knew what was going to appear on the screen eventually – Ardyn had made that obvious, except Noctis whose thoughts had made him blind to his surroundings, but they still didn’t know exactly what kind of game Ardyn was playing, he had them - so why hadn’t he hurt them or even killed them? What did he want from this?

Ignis quickly lost interest in the screen and instead focused his mind on how they were all going to get out of this. If Prompto made it to them, would he be able to free them with Ardyn in the way? If not, then they needed to have a plan. Ignis never liked not having a plan or strategy and with the odds of Ardyn letting Prompto free them being impossibly low, he tried to strategize an escape plan. He tested his bound, they were firm and tight – there was no way they were going to break. With both of his hands being bound and far apart, he couldn’t untie them either. With their current scenario, Ignis found their chances of getting out of the bounds and escaping were slim. The room they were in was empty, excluding the screen, so he couldn’t use that for his advantage either. He started to get frustrated, this was not good.

“Well it seems your hearts’ desire has finally arrived Noctis”

Noctis awoke from his trance and took in the screen before him, then he saw the figure that was entering the room…Prompto.

The screen showed Prompto close the door and slowly look around the room he was in. The footage was high in quality as Noctis could see every detail on Promptos’ face, the blondes’ face appeared cautious – his eyes were focused, inspecting the room.

Part relief and fear flood through Noctis “Prompto…” he said softly to no one.

“That’s right your majesty, now the real fun starts”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW WHAT A ASSHOLE  
> seriously though, thanks for reading and thanks to those who leave kudos and comments it means a lot.
> 
> Plz leave a comment if ya wish
> 
> ma tumblr:  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lexzera


	9. The beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto is in the stronghold.  
> Ignis is trying his best to think.  
> Noctis is very distressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up this chapter and chapters in the future probably will have some episode Prompto spoilers but they're not major.   
> If you haven't played it, you don't need to to understand whats going on (me fanfic isn't exactly following canon anyway ;)) but i do recommend you play it just because it very good - me baby Prompto is sooooo badass in it.  
> Anyway like isaid not major spoilers just like a small summary of the tapes you have to collect in the DLC, but honestly even if you do play the game after reading this is ain't going to spoil much (if anything) i just thought i should let ya know just in case.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

There was a chill in the air and a slight dampness to the atmosphere. That was the first thing Prompto noticed as he stepped inside through the wooden door, he closed it behind him and looked around. Only one door was in the room, beside the one he had just walked through, other than that the room was blank with similar dark walls to the ones outside except they were a little lighter in colour and was in worst condition. Cracks lined the walls, dirty marks everywhere with slight wetness in the corners. Gods this brought back some memories, none of them good.

Looking closer in one of the corners sat a small black box with an even smaller lens. Obviously, the box’s size meant that whoever put it up didn’t want anyone to see it but Prompto did, he knew what it was as well. A security camera, he doubted anyone had looked at the footage it produced in a long time it probably didn’t even work anymore. So, he ignored it. Instead he focused on the next door.

Unlike the last door this one revealed a giant room filled with desks and chairs, paper scattered everywhere. He ventured further into the room and approached one of the desks. It was a disaster of documents, folder and pens like a big gust of wind had come through.

Curious, Prompto started to look through the papers. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for he just wanted to see if there was any information on this place, anything that would be of some use to finding his friends, if he was lucky he might find a map or blueprint that the old employees had left behind. He needed to find something that would help him find his way around as he had long forgotten it. The only memories he had of this place were the attempted escapes – the rush of hands digging and the laughter of the guards - and screams of pain, nothing useful only nightmare fuelling he couldn’t even remember how he escaped or where he was placed or what happened here. If he was being honest with himself, finding any information on this place scared him – it made him fear that his past nightmares that he had always tried to push aside as nonsense would seem more real and would return to haunt him. Everyone was counting on him though so he had to try, no matter the cost.

He couldn’t find any map or anything useful in the pile of paper, sighing in frustration he turned to the next desk, then his eye caught something that was buried within the documents. He reached in and took it out. It was some kind of recorder, he pressed the play button on its side and the room filled with a gruff voice of a man _._ The audio log stated one scientist plan of upgrading the empires’ troopers, the scientist believed that with these upgrades the empire would rise. The mans’ voice sounded louder and more powerful during the end of the recoding when stating the empire would rise and the world would bask in their glory, it made Prompto shiver at the thought

Although he was slightly intrigued and nervous by the recording, he concluded that he didn’t have time to dwell on it and replaced the recorder on the desk and tried the next, hopping that it would yield better results.

He searched the second desk as swift as he could, he didn’t know exactly how big this place was or where everyone was being held…if they were here at all, what if Ardyn was lying in his letter? Would all this effort be for nothing? He pushed those thoughts aside, those kinds of negative thoughts would not help right now, the letter was the only lead he had on where his friends were and he was going to follow it till the end.

Once again, he didn’t find any sort of map or anything not even another recorder. But the computer on this desk was working and on the screen, was a file called ‘open me’. With nothing else on the desk, he opened the file which turned out to be a picture of the strongholds layout with the words ‘you’re welcome’ at the bottom. Ardyn was the one who had set all this up; the letter, taking his friends so Prompto guessed that Ardyn left this for him on purpose which means he wants Prompto to find him…why? If he had gone through all that effort to kidnap Noct, Ignis and Gladio then why was he helping him get to them?

Prompto didn’t think he would ever understand how Ardyn mind worked, however regardless of Ardyn’s reasons, Prompto now had a map. Printing it off was easy, it seemed like the printer was also set up for him – it was turned on and had paper ready to be used.

On the map there was an arrow that showed him his current location, there were two doors in his location - one on the left and one on the right. Unfortunly the map didn’t give any clue on where his friends could be held, in fact most of the rooms hadn’t even been labelled – Ardyn wasn’t going to let him get to his friends that easily. In his hand, Prompto planned a route so that he could check every room without having to go backwards, as far as he could tell if he went left first it would be the most efficient start.

Putting the map in his pocket he went to the left door it had no handle or keyhole and opened automatically so Prompto assumed the storm hadn’t damaged the power and somehow this place still had some juice. Ardyn probably added fuel to the generators.

He stepped through the door.

Through the camera four sets of eyes were watching his actions.

“Looks like he has found my little gift to him, what a smart little boy”

Ignis, like the others, was watching the screen carefully. Ardyn’s ‘gift’ appeared to be some kind of construction layout that Prompto had found on one of the computers. The ‘gift’ however wasn’t 100% useful, with at least half of the names of the rooms missing and the sketches of the building being very vague. In short, Ignis found Ardyns ‘gift’ to be nothing more than to be used to mock them and to make Ardyn seem more ‘helpful’ and ‘fair’ than he actually was. That bastard.

He had had enough of Ardyn’s games, Ignis wouldn’t let Ardyn get what he wants not if he had anything to do with it. He still paid attention to the screen, let Ardyn think that he was only interested in the ‘show’ he had on, meanwhile Ignis was still thinking of a way out. He had tried to plan through every scenario and for all of them the ending was bad for them and Ardyn got what he wanted. Concluding with the three of them tied up and Ardyn right next to them that they couldn’t get out on their own, Ignis tried to do the next best thing. Find a way to help Prompto. If he found a way to give Prompto some assistance then it would be easier for the blonde to get to them and hopefully get them out of here. Problem was, that there was only so much one could do without his hands. He would have to plan this carefully; one wrong move and it could make the situation worse for Prompto and themselves rather than better.

Noctis was still majorly in distress, his eyes were glued to the screen not caring what Ardyn was saying or thinking. Prompto was in the building, Prompto was here because he couldn’t look after his own ass back in the hotel earlier. Gods, he felt like such an idiot. Luckily, Prompto appeared unharmed and nothing appeared to be coming for him. Even so, nothing was stopping Ardyn from sending in troops or just going there himself to attack Prompto, Noctis had to find a way to get to him.

With most of his energy back, he tried to warp…nothing. Ardyn must’ve set up some kind of blocker nearby, he couldn’t warp or access his weapons or anything that could help. He felt utterly useless, what was he supposed to do? He was stuck here watching a madman toy with his best friend and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Dammit” he mumbled.

 The door had led to hallways after hallways, door after door he was starting to slow down this place was huge it was going to take forever to get around it. Prompto was walking through another hallway he had lost count of how many doors he had gone through; the map had made these hallways seem much shorter. He shouldn’t complain though, in all these hallways he hadn’t met any trouble, every hallway was the same: grey, empty and leading to one door at the end of it.

Just as he was reaching the end of the current hallway where the door at the end would be, he saw another door to the right. _Well that’s’ new_ , he thought. The door opened as Prompto approached it, inside it appeared like a rest room with beds, lockers and a coffee machine. There were no other doors in the room.

Prompto had been walking for a long time, he had no idea how much time he had spent in the stronghold but he knew that if he kept walking without a rest he would eventually collapse in the hallway. With this in mind, Prompto took a small break and sat on one of the beds that was covered in dust but right now he didn’t really care. He doubted that the coffee machine worked so he just sat there, then he repositioned himself so that he was lying down his head on the pillow. As he shifted, he felt something uncomfortable under his head he reached under the pillow and pulled out a grey box, another recorder.

Instead of playing it Prompto put in in his pocket with the map, he would rest first then play it later while he was walking through the other hallways. Prompto wondered how many he would have to walk through before coming to another large room that was mark on the map, labelled as ‘Lab’.

With silence all around, Prompto felt truly lonely. While he was wondering through the stronghold he hadn’t really thought of it, his mind too preoccupied with finding his way around and making sure that, with all the hallways looking the same, he hadn’t gone the wrong way or somehow gone in a circle. Just sitting there, hearing nothing but his own breathing Prompto had never felt more alone. It made his gut wrench and his mind go to a very dark place, a place that hadn’t really affected him since he and Noctis had become close whenever his mind had visited there before he had fought against it – thinking that Noctis wouldn’t want him to think like that so he had pushed it aside for his best friend, now he didn’t have the energy or company to do much about them. All these thoughts yelling in his head made him very self-aware, he had to stop thinking he had a job to do HE HAD TO SAVE NOCT DAMMIT.

He could feel himself slowly break down, piece by piece. Stopping had been a bad idea, without distractions his mind was free to wonder and explore.

 

Prompto had stopped. It appeared as though he was taking a break. Noctis couldn’t blame him, seeing Prompto wonder through all those hallways had made Noctis feel tired for him. He saw him find the tape and questioned how it would’ve gotten there but one glance to his left and seeing Ardyn smirk more at the sight answer that question for him. Of course, Ardyn had put it there he had this all put together. Still Noctis wondered what was so important on those tapes that Ardyn made sure Prompto found them, the first one just sounded like a mad scientist expressing his destructive plans he had been hired for.

All the way through the security feed, Noctis had kept a keen eye on Prompto he could see that his friend was exhausted – his eyes looked dull and had lost their usual spark (that Noctis had always adored) and his complexion had gotten paler, the stress of the situation couldn’t have helped. However, as he saw his friend lying there he saw that Promptos’ already dreary look go darker, his eyes had clouded over as though he was deep in thought and through his expression Noctis could see that those thoughts were not pleasant in the slightest.

Noctis wanted nothing more than to run to his friend’s side as quick as he could and wrap him in his arms, telling him that everything’s fine and that they could hang out at that spot on the beach again – taking as many pictures as he wanted as long as it brought a smile to his face. He couldn’t bear to see Prompto like this, to see someone so full of love and happiness look so lifeless, not even for a second.

The prince wasn’t the only one to notice Promptos’ state. Ignis could fathom from what he saw that Prompto needed rest and that he was most likely losing hope, considering his current situation Ignis couldn’t blame him. Without doubt he knew that Prompto would keep going and would try his hardest to get to them but if his mental health deteriorates it would make it harder for him to do so. If they could help him out in any way now would be a good time to do it. Question was, how?

Quick thinking was needed. They needed a plan, now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda struggling to write at the moment just because there are many ways i could continue this but i gotta make sure it still works with the other chapters, basically this dumbass didn't plan this far sooooooo i'm as lost as you when it comes to what happens next soooooo soz
> 
> Anywayyyyy, leave a comment if ya want and if ya want to chat i'm always up for it (Especially if it's about ffxv and Promptis - gotta love that shit)
> 
> me tumblr:  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lexzera


	10. The plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis has come up with an idea but it's going to take a lot of effort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, i know i have already used swears in this fic but like there is quite a bit during the end - if ya don't like it i'm sorryyyy.
> 
> Hope ya enjoy :) this one took a while.

 

In all his life Ignis had never struggled more to come up with some kind of plan, even a start of a plan was hard to come up with. He shouldn’t be struggling this much, Dammit! No…getting angry wouldn’t help, he just needed a clear mind. Although his limbs were bound, his mind and mouth still worked which meant he could still use persuasion as a strategy. He just needed a point, something that would draw Ardyn into conversation – peak his interest and then somehow lead that conversation into a topic that meant Ardyn had to leave them. Alone.

The only thing Ardyn had discussed since they had arrived was the ‘show’ he was putting on, so his mind was most likely focused on that. That would be a start. Then, Ignis needed a way to dig into his mind, something from his personality or person that he could use to his advantage. He didn’t know any of Ardyn’s fears or any of his interests, so a fear or friendly tactic was out of the question. Now he thought about it, Ignis knew nothing of Ardyn’s person – after all he had barely had a proper conversation with the man so there was no way for him to know of Ardyn’s mind. So, that just left his personality. From what he had seen, Ignis could conclude that Ardyn was a confident man with a strong and cunning mind and although Ignis severely hated the man, his plans – although wicked – were structured and organised, he had left nothing to chance he had spent a lot of time on all of this. The man was also quite passionate and liked to exaggerate his actions and present his works with pride. Of course, because of his pride and his tendency to be over-dramatic, it was obvious that Ardyn had a rather large ego he wanted people to see what he had done, he loved being right and showing off his works especially if it brought a big reaction from the viewers – whether that reaction was good or not didn’t affect him he just wanted the attention…. that was it!

One way or another, Ardyn’s ego was a weakness especially since his was a considerable size it was Ignis’ way in. If he manipulated this weakness and played Ardyn’s game, he could find some way to get him to leave. It wasn’t a whole plan but it was the best he got, he would just have to make it up as he goes and hope that the others would play along or not interrupt.

There was one big problem to this start of a plan and it wasn’t the difficulty to somehow turn the conversation to make Ardyn leave, no the big problem was if he did get Ardyn out…what then? Ignis had already concluded that they couldn’t escape so they must help Prompto but he still didn’t know how, especially in this state. He would just have to hope that this conversation would benefit him and give him an advantage and a continuation to his plan.

The screen hadn’t changed but everyone, including Ardyn, were still watching not taking their eyes off it for a second. Time to start.

“hmm well this isn’t very interesting, is it?”

Everyone turned to face Ignis, shock on Noctis and Gladio’s faces and amusement on Ardyn’s.

“Is the show not up to your standards Ignis?”

Good, he had got Ardyn’s attention, now to play his cards right. He couldn’t mess up this chance. Ignis turned (as much as he could) to Ardyn ignoring Noctis’ facial expression as he focused on their kidnapper.

“Well the plot is interesting, that much I can say. But I just feel as though something is missing.”

“oh? And what would that be?”

“If we are to truly enjoy this show I would like to know the backstory behind it, to get a better understanding, if you don’t mind”

“Hmm”.

Ardyn was clearly thinking of Ignis’ words, a small smirk sat on his face. Let him think Ignis was actually interested into the history, make Ardyn think that he actually had questions about the show’s plot. He chose this as a start for two reasons, one: it was more likely to catch Ardyn’s attention since it was about him and his ‘show’ and two: because the more information Ignis could get on this place and Ardyn’s plan, the easier it will be to come up with a plan.

Ardyn moved from the left side of Noctis position, where he was watching the screen to in front of Ignis, “What exactly would you like to know?”

“Well we all obviously know much of the character, as we have known him for a long time, but the setting is a mystery. You have brought to this stronghold yet we know nothing of it – which could be vital to the overall story and atmosphere.”

The answer was taking a little too long, Ardyn was most likely thinking of the risks if he told them anything, so Ignis decided to play a little bit more with Ardyn’s ego.

“Unless, you don’t know anything. Which would be a disappointment as the setting is of major importance to a story”, he continued.

That seemed to struck a nerve, “of course I know about the setting, I chose it for a very specific reason – which I can’t tell you as it would spoil the whole plot”, he paused “but I can tell you some of the history and the makings of this magnificent stronghold, if you wish. I’m glad you spoke up dear Ignis, for this show must be perfect”

Ignis smiled. “So, to start, perhaps you can tell me of how this place was made?”

“Well I don’t know much of construction but the place was built along with several others for one a great purpose – which, like I said, I cannot spill. This fortress was expensive but it was worth it as the security, one of its most important features, was flawless”.

Ignis butt in a question “How exactly was the security so great?”

A chuckle escaped through Ardyn’s lips “It was more than just great. The security was simple but worked fantastically. The structure was simple: one door – one way in and out, solid walls and floors, regular security checks by guards, security cameras that were placed everywhere and were always on, and finally speakers so that orders were effectively given and received”

This was perfect, Ignis just needed to dig further “Apologises if this sounds dull, but while in this room I have seen these security measure you speak of except I never witnessed any speakers anywhere in this room or through the footage.”

“Well there is a reason for that, dear Ignis, the fortress was built with the speakers hidden within the walls – the only part of them that is visible is a tiny black circle, almost impossible to see. The reason for this is that they wanted the speakers safe as possible from damage, they would’ve done the same with the cameras but they found no way to make them look any less visible than they are currently”, another chuckle “but I assure you that every room in this place has one speaker.”

Speakers. One in every room. A sure way to contact Prompto. That added another part to his plan but he still needed to get Ardyn out, but if he was lucky Ignis might not have to work too hard to get Ardyn somewhere else as he seemed to be set on pleasing Ignis’ request.

“How are they controlled?”

“A lot of security questions here Ignis, why is that?”

“I simply want to have every detail as security is one of the main features of a stronghold. Plus, it will make it easier for me to understand Prompto’s situation in those rooms as I shall be more aware of why he can’t do certain things as the high security is preventing him”. Ignis hoped that was enough to deter Ardyn’s suspicions, if Ardyn stopped now all his effort would be for naught.

“Impressive, that big brain of yours is really something to think this far into the plot.” Ardyn reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote control. “This is how you control the speakers. You simply choose which room you would like to communicate in and speak into it. I was planning on using it to communicate with out dear Prompto, but I decided against it thinking that it would add a little too much and over adding features to art can ruin it”.

Ardyn raised his hand and showed Ignis the device and then placed it on the railing in front of them “I suppose I don’t need to carry it around with me, I don’t want to accidently turn it on or break it after all”.

“One more question about security, if you’re ok with that?”

“No problem at all Ignis, fire away”

“These security cameras, how do you change to the one you want to view? As we have be viewing Prompto the screen changed as he moved, yet I haven’t seen you press a single button or switch – how is this possible?”

“Oh well, the security cameras are state of the art and have two modes. Right now, I have them set on automatic which means it follows whoever or whatever you have selected. The second mode is manual and requires a remote control”

“Where is this remote control? Does it still work after all these years?”

“It still works yes, it is in the security office”

All Ignis needed to do know was to persuade Ardyn to get the remote, make him believe that it’s needed for the backstory.

“Shame I couldn’t see it, I would’ve loved the chance to see the impressive technology that you claim these cameras are. I bet the remote must be really something.”

Ardyn had paused again, his eyes were eager – he wanted to prove his talks of the greatness of this place, he wanted to impress so that he could show off his smugness, Ignis could see that. There was no greater achievement to a man of his ego than showing off and proving his words.

“hmm, well since we might be waiting a little while until out hero continues his journey, I suppose I could obtain the remote”, his smirk widened “not like you’re going anywhere”

Gladio growled at that.

“Well then, I suppose I shall see you fine gentleman in a bit”

At that, Ardyn walked from the group towards a door to the left side of the room. As soon as the door sounded shut, Ignis let out a sigh of relief – _It had worked._

Now the next step would be even trickier, how were they going to get to that remote? The railing it sat on was close to them but not close enough that they could reach.

“Wow he actually left”, Gladio seemed much happier about this than Ignis was “Nice plan Iggy”

Ignis let out an irritated sigh, “Yes, but not nice enough. We still have no way of escaping these ropes”

“I got that covered Ignis”

That caught both Ignis and Noctis’ attention.

“You do?” Ignis was sceptical.

“Yep! While you were working with trying to get Ardyn to leave, I was trying to get free”

“And did you?”

A left hand was raised – free – as Gladio smiled at Ignis proudly, “see for yourself”

“How long have you been free?” Noctis questioned, a little irritated that Gladi9o hadn’t done anything with the freedom that could’ve helped them.

While undoing his other hand free, Gladio merely shrugged “Sometime when Iggy was talking about security to Ardyn”

After a little struggle, Gladio emerged fully free from all bounds he started to undo Ignis’ before he was interrupted.

“Gladio stop, we don’t have time for this” Ignis insisted, he tried to make his point by shuffling his wrists from Gladio’s hands.

“What the hell you on about? Ardyn ain’t here and we got to get out of here”.

“We won’t have time to get us all free and to get enough distance between us and Ardyn”.

Ignoring him, Gladio continued to untie the knots “Then what do you want us to do other than escape?”.

“We need to contact Prompto, to help him so that he can get to us”.

“Why let the kid go through all that trouble when we can get ourselves out”, at that Gladio had freed Ignis and moved on to Noctis – who was looking towards Ignis.

“We can contact Prompto?” Noctis eyes had a little hope in them, the possibility of even talking to Prompto raising his spirits a little. Especially since it meant that he could try to help his best friend in his current down state.

“Yes Noctis, Ardyn has given us all the information we need to do that. We simply need to use the speaker in the room Prompto is currently in”.

He heard Gladio grunt at that “why communicate with him when we can go to him now?”.

After freeing Noctis, Gladio ran to the opposite door Ardyn went through on the right-hand side of the room – despite Ignis’ constant warnings to him. He tried to open the door.

Meanwhile Ignis concluded that they definitely won’t have time to escape or get away from Ardyn without being recaptured – especially since Ardyn most likely locked the doors. So instead of yelling at Gladio his thoughts, he focused on the speakers.

“Noctis helped me wit- “

He paused as he heard footsteps from the left – Ardyn was coming back.

With no time to lose Ignis grabbed the remote and Noctis joined him in trying to figure out which room Prompto was in. Looking at the map on the remote and comparing it to what they had seen of Promptos’ journey, they figured out that the only room that Prompto could be in was rest room 1. Selecting the room, Ignis spoke into the small mic on the remote, “Prompto? Prompto are you there?”.

 

Prompto was still lost in his thoughts when he decided that enough time had passed and that he should get back out there and find the others. But he was struggling, with his mind still occupied his body was not working with him. He made himself stand and walked in a slow pace to the door. Why was he so weak? They needed him and he was letting them down because of some stupid little thoughts.

“Prompto? Prompto are you there?”

Ignis? Was that Ignis’ voice? Great, now he was hearing things. Is he so dependant and pathetic that he needed the fake voices of his friends to keep him going?

“PROM? PROM CAN YOU HEAR ME? PLEASE ANSWER!”

Wait that was…Noctis?

Still unsure that he wasn’t hearing things, Prompto let out a weak “Noctis?”

“PROM?!”

Hearing Noctis again, Prompto put more confidence and volume into his voice, “NOCTIS?!”

“Prom? Oh, thank the gods”

If he wasn’t losing his mind and he was actually communicating with Noctis then, how?

“Noctis? Where are you?”

“Umm I’m not sure”. There was a pause.

“Noctis?”

“I’m afraid our surroundings do not tell us enough to know Prompto”, a different voice answered.

“Ignis, you’re there too?”

“Yes, wherever ‘there’ is exactly”

Prompto asked the one thing that had been constantly on his mind the entire time, “Are you guys ok?”

“A little tired and a few bruises here and there but other than that we are perfectly fine” ignis replied.

Noctis spoke up once again, “Listen Prom, we don’t have that much time to talk but I want to let you know something”.

Not much time? What did that mean? Where they in danger? “yeah?”

“I know things don’t seem too great right now, which they aren’t but I want you to know that I believe in you Prom – we all do. Me, Ignis, Gladio we all know you can make it to us. Just…. make sure you’re careful and don’t get yourself hurt for me, for us.”

Silence, although it was only for a beat to Prompto it felt like an age.

“Once you get to us, we’re all going to stop Ardyn and get out of here yeah? We can go back to Lestallum a little while longer – I think we deserve it. Prom I- “

“A bang, then silence except this time Noctis’ voice didn’t return.

“Noct? NOCTIS?”

Fuck this self-loathing bullshit, fuck his thoughts, right now he didn’t give a shit -  all those things he can sort out later. None of it was important, the only thing that mattered was getting to them. Prompto didn’t think he had ever felt so angry in his life. Whatever Ardyn thought he was up to, Prompto would stop him. So, he pushed his thoughts back to where they were, where they wouldn’t slow him down, and stormed out of the room.

 

Once Ignis had connected with the room Prompto was in, Noctis had yelled at the remote – desperate to know if Prompto could hear him. After hearing a small sound from the remote and then a larger one of Prompto yelling his name, Noctis had never felt more relief in his life. He let out a shaky breath and let himself smile, Prompto could hear him - he could talk to him.

After Prompto asked where he was Noctis had looked to Ignis – who had let Noctis take over the talking – for guidance, maybe the advisor had noticed something he hadn’t and could give Prompto with their location. But Ignis was just as clueless as he was.

Prompto had asked how they were – _I should be asking him that,_ Noctis thought but kept silent as Ignis spoke for him in his usual calm tone.

Ignis had then turned to Noctis and gave him a look, he wanted Noctis to do the talking, to comfort his best friend. Ignis knew Noctis was desperate to talk to him and also knew that he was most likely the best person to give Prompto some support – even if the prince wasn’t the best with his words or emotions.

With Ignis trusting him with the remote, Noctis scoured his brain for the right words. He had wanted to talk to Prompto, to help him however he could – thinking that it was impossible though meant that he never actually came up with what he would say. So, he did the best he could and said everything he wanted to.

“Once you get to us, we’re all going to stop Ardyn and get out of here yeah? We can go back to Lestallum a little while longer – I think we deserve it. Prom I- “

Just as he was going to finish, a bang sounded to his left and he saw Ignis lying on the floor beside him – unconscious. Gladio was out cold by the door as well. Beside Ignis stood Ardyn, who must’ve slipped into the room when Noctis was too occupied with Prompto. Before he could react, another bang sounded, then his vision started to go black.

“Impressive…. but not good enough. Not your fault boys – you’re only human.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH LOOK AT ALL WORDS 
> 
> I really like to knock people out, don't i? woops
> 
> soooo yea Prom is tired of Ardyn's bullshit and is gonna go kick ass and Noctis,Ignis and Gladio are going to have terrible headaches by the end of this :)
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> Leave a comment if ya want or come chat to meh, i don't mind :)
> 
> ma tumblr:  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lexzera


	11. Audio logs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dangers are ahead - can our young hero stay alive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy :)  
> soz for the delay to the people who actually WANT to read this

Prompto had rushed through the following hallways, never stopping or taking a break. Noctis’ words had struck something in him and now he had all the energy he needed to keep going. He needed to get to them now. He had no idea what had happened when Noctis was cut off, Ardyn might’ve done something to them and that stuck in Prompto’s mind as he kept going – in fact it might’ve been one of the reasons he was going through all these hallways so quickly, he couldn’t let Ardyn hurt them anymore he had to get them out.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Prompto reached a door like no other before. This one was bigger, much bigger. Perhaps he had finally reached ‘Lab’. With no hesitance, Prompto continued forward as the door opened automatically.

Inside the first thing he noticed is that the room is darker than the others. His eyes took a little while to adjust so that he could see clearly. When he finally saw everything in the room, he wished he hadn’t. Along the walls all around the room were MT’s lined up side by side. Instinctually he tried to pull out a gun, but he couldn’t. Panicking, he stared wide eyed at the MT’s – expecting for them to rush to attack him with nothing he could do about it - until he realised they weren’t moving – they appeared to be deactivated. Prompto calmed his racing heart and tried to think.; he had no weapons, no way to defend himself, how was he going to get past Ardyn to his friends without some kind of weapon? He had to find something, a knife, a gun, anything.

With a wary gaze, Prompto shuffled himself through the room – careful not to get too close to the MTs. Other than the MTs, the room was mainly empty excluding some lockers, metal tables and a desk– similar to the ones in the first room. The first thing he did was check the lockers, hoping for a weapon that some kind of miracle could grant…or Ardyn could’ve planted one for him, right now he didn’t care as long as it meant he could attack the bastard when he reached him. Either luck or Ardyn must’ve heard his wish as the second locker he checked contained a pair of pistols and a sword. The pistols were quite pretty; they were mainly black with detailed silver patterns along the sides. The sword wasn’t anything special – just a simple black colour with no extravagant features but it would do. Further inside the locker was a holster that, when worn, could hold one pistol on both sides of a person’s hips and a sword or knife on a person’s lower back. That confirmed that Ardyn must’ve planted it, Prompto had never seen MTs with holsters like this so the weapons couldn’t be passed off as being spare or accidently left behind. Prompto, with a sigh, begrudgingly put on the harness and took the pistols and sword, he hated knowing that he was doing exactly Ardyn wanted but what choice did he have?

He closed the locker and, seeing as there was nothing else useful for him there, went to the door to his right where the line of MTs stopped. Carefully not to step too close to the MTs next to the door, Prompto walked towards the door and had expected it to open but as his foot hit the edge of the door he realised it was locked. No, no, no he couldn’t have come this far to be stopped by a locked door, Ardyn had left them all open for him - wanting him to come – so why had he left this one locked? Before he went to far into panic mode Prompto checked the small console next to the door. The console had a scanner and a screen that said: ‘code needed’. Prompto frowned, he hadn’t come across any codes in the other rooms.

Sighing, he went back to the centre of the room and checked the one desk, hoping that they would be some kind of note or card with the ‘code’. He couldn’t stop now, there had to be a code here somewhere. _Hopefully_ , his mind unhelpfully added.

Unbeknown to the blonde, at the edge of the room a cold figure started to glitch and spasm to life and its empty eyes found a target.

 

Noctis woke in terrible pain, again. It didn’t take as long to recover this time and as soon as he saw Ardyn’s smug grin in front of him, his memories came running back. _Prompto, Ignis gave us a chance ot speak to him but then…_ A scowl covered Noctis features as the memory of Ignis’ and Gladio’s bodies on the floor seeped into his mind. He hadn’t even got a chance to finish what he was going to say to Prompto.

“Awake once more, are we? Clever plan boys, I’m guessing his highness wasn’t the brain behind it”, leisurely, Ardyn moved from Noctis to Ignis. “I fathom that you were the who came up with it. Tsk tsk, naughty Ignis and here I was being a good host and trying to give you all the information of the backstory as needed to quench your thirst for knowledge, thinking you were starting to appreciate my work only for you to deceive me.” Ardyn roughly grabbed Ignis’ chin (who was still partially groggy from the blow earlier), “I have to do something about that”.

Ardyn was putting on a cheerful voice, as though the plan of deceiving him was just a game – that could easily be fixed and forgiven but behind that revealed a venom, they all heard it, he was simply pretending to joke around but there was no mistake in the threat of his words.

The not so subtle threat riled Gladio, “Hey! Leave him alone he didn’t do anything”. If Ardyn knew Ignis came up with everything he would get severely hurt, Gladio would rather it be him - he could take it.

A mocking laugh was directed at him, with Ignis’ chin still in a vice-like grip Ardyn stared at Gladio, “Do you honestly think I will believe that **you** came up with this idea by yourself? Even if I was the slightest bit convinced that you had the brains for it, which I don’t, when exactly would you have time to go through the plan so that the advisor knew what to say? Hmm?”. Without letting Gladio have time to reply, Ardyn continued, “exactly. Now if you don’t mind me and Ignis were having a conversation – it’s rude to interrupt “.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING HURT HIM!”

Tired of his interruptions, Ardyn dropped Ignis’ chin and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He stepped in front of Gladio and gagged his mouth with it, “Now be a good boy and shut up”. Ardyn’s smile grew as he heard the muffled protests and walked back to Ignis.

“Now, where were we?”.

By this time Ignis had regained full consciousness but he didn’t dare speak, any excuses would only anger Ardyn further and Ignis was willing to go through with whatever Ardyn had planned. After all his plan had worked, Prompto was coming and if the cost meant him getting injured he would gladly pay it, as long as no one else had to get punished by his plan as well.

But before Ardyn got a chance to lay a hand on him, a creaking noise sounded through the screen and it caught all four’s attention. Ardyn stepped from Ignis and faced the screen, “well looks like all that can wait, the show is just about to get more interesting.”

Noctis face flew back to the screen, seeing what he had missed. Prompto had finally gone through all the hallways and now was in another large room, although it was dark, Noctis could still see and he didn’t like what his eyes told him was there. The room was filled with MTs, luckily, they seem to be inactive. Prompto was at one of the desks seeming to be looking for something, what? Noctis didn’t know. Looking over the blonde’s body, Noctis noticed that Prompto must’ve found some weapons while he was knocked out. That calmed Noctis slightly, knowing his friend had some sort of protection. But that calmness was instantly replaced with fear as he saw one of the MTs spasming – becoming active. _Oh gods, please no_. Prompto hadn’t yet notice the now active MT. Then, one by one, each MT activated. Noctis thoughts were running wild, _please notice, Prompto run!_

As each MT made their first step, Prompto’s head snapped up. He instantly jumped from the desk and grabbed his guns. He took aim and fired at the nearest one – his aim, as always, was perfect and it went down. But more were advancing on him and with the whole room surrounded with them he didn’t have any advantage points or defences he could take cover behind. _Shit, shit, shit,_ he was so screwed. He continued to fire, using both guns. Then the MTs pulled out their own guns and all at once fired down on him. Running out of options, Prompto crawled under the desk and fired back – he just hoped that he would take them all down before they reached the desk.

Watching the fight, not one word was spoken – each transfixed with the fight taking place. Noctis, Ignis and Gladio all watched, wishing they were there to assist and hoping for Prompto to come out of this victorious…or at least alive. One thought especially remained in the prince’s head throughout it all: _please be alright, please be alright, I can’t lose you._

Back at the Lab; Prompto was running out of bullets but the MTs were running out of troops. With a few well-placed shots, three more went down – only two remained but under the desk he wouldn’t get enough good shots with the little ammo he had left to take them down. Prompto rolled from the desk across the room, taking his aim at both the MTs’ heads. He fired. They went down.

Heavy pants filled the room as Prompto tried to catch his breath. _That was close._ He checked how many bullets he had remaining and was pleasantly surprised with how much he had left over – not enough to do another battle like that but still enough for now.

Calming his adrenaline after the fight, Prompto went back to the desk. But even as he was searching it he knew he had already checked everywhere before the MTs activated. Not wanting to give up, Prompto searched the rest of the room where the MTs had once stood.

Looking around, Prompto noticed recorders from where the MTs once stood scattered around the edge of the room. He picked them all up and then remembered the one he had picked up earlier. With no other ideas or plan of action, Prompto started to listen to all the tapes.

Each log was voiced by the same man, and one by one Prompto began to understand what they had done here. It was sick… all of it – how could they have done such a thing? This place was nothing but evil, these walls had heard nothing but plans of madness and sounds of suffering. The more he learned of this place, the more he wanted to get everyone out as soon as possible. Not only that, but this man was the one behind the attack on Insomnia – he had planned it all, it was his fault of all the devastation that day. And it was because of Ardyn’s support that this mad man succeeded in his awful ventures.

As the final log played, the closed door beeped and opened. Prompto stood and left, his mind full, his goal clear.

After Prompto winning, visible relaxation filled three faces – especially a dark-haired prince who was tempted to shout his distress at that damn screen.

“Look at you all, so worried for your dear friend but looks like your worrying was unneeded. Did you think he couldn’t handle himself? He didn’t even require your help, in fact he performed marvellously don’t you agree?” Ardyn turned from the screen to look at all three captives, “Which begs to question, did you ever consider you were holding him back?”. Ardyn smirks and faces the screen once more, leaving them with his words.

Ardyn’s speech slowly sunk in. Noctis was perfectly aware that Prompto could handle himself, he wouldn’t have invited him on the journey if that wasn’t the case. Holding him back though? How? As far as Noctis knew Prompto gave his all in each fight, yeah sometimes he goofed around and took pictures but that made it more fun and that was how Prompto was and Noctis wouldn’t change that for the world.

His thoughts were interrupted when Prompto had discovered more tapes and was currently playing them. As each tape played, Noctis felt more angered – what the hell had happened here?

As the final tape ended, the room fell silent.

“How could they have done such a thing?”, Noctis blurted, his emotions taking control of his words.

“All in the name of progress dear prince, had to be done.” Ardyn replied.

“You’re a monster”, Gladio muffled, but it was understood.

“I didn’t perform the experiments dear Gladio, I simply helped” Ardyn continued before they could respond, “now shush, our dear Prompto is continuing his journey”.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the last sentences of Ardyn are a bit weird but let me just say this: Ardyn dosent say things without a reason ;)  
> FYI u dont need to know the specific details of the logs to understand the story - just know they bad. the logs are the same ones in episode Prompto.
> 
> Soz for any mistakes and for the late upload - i've been anxious all week and couldn't focus.
> 
> Thanks for reading  
> add a comment if ya wish 
> 
>  
> 
> ma tumblr:  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lexzera  
> ma pinterest:  
> https://www.pinterest.co.uk/zzerax/


	12. The truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto discovers.  
> Noctis is tired.  
> Ardyn is enjoying this way too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy
> 
> warning: swearsssssss but u probably already knew that

 

Each step took more effort than the last, he was dragging himself along the open hallway in front of him. Physically; he was fine but mentally? Not as much. After his discovery in the Lab Prompto’s mind wouldn’t shut up as the words from the logs repeated again and again in his head, he was sick of it. As much as he wanted to forget what he had learnt, he couldn’t he had tried to replace the thoughts with better ones – that usually worked but not this time. Even thinking of his best friend doing one of his rare, pure smiles didn’t lift his thoughts as it only reminded him how he was failing Noctis who was trapped somewhere in this awful place and what had Prompto done to help? Nothing.

Turning a corner Prompto’s mind cleared as his eyes registered what was further ahead of him: a MT. As far as Prompto could see there was only one MT in the hallway however because of the hallways size there was no way for Prompto to slip past. He would have to take it down. Trying to think strategically, like Ignis would want him to, he gathered that he couldn’t use his guns, just because there was only one he could see doesn’t mean there aren’t more around the corner and he didn’t need an army of troopers rushing towards him. With that in mind Prompto approached the MT, which was facing away from him, jumped on it and wrapped his arms around its throat. Both the MT and Prompto fell to the floor and after a brief struggle, it stopped moving and Prompto stood back up. _That wasn’t so bad._ It had gone down easy enough. Any sense of accomplishment left Prompto as once again the tapes came back to him – these things weren’t just machines and they had suffered here. They didn’t deserve this, none of them did. _There again,_ he thought, _the least I could do is put them out of their misery, it mustn’t be nice being...like that, trapped in a hard shell._

He kneeled down next to it, “I’m sorry” he whispered so lightly Prompto himself barely heard it, it was all he could manage

A major problem had become evident to Prompto because of this; there was no way there was just one MT patrolling these hallways. He could take down one silently, no problem, but if two were standing together he would get struck down by the other one before he had chance to get back up. The lack of ammo wouldn’t help with this problem, so kneeling beside the MT he grabbed its rifle and continued down.

 

Noctis was sick of this. He was sick of watching Prompto on the screen, he was sick of seeing his best friend in these situations just to rescue him, he was sick of seeing his blonde get attacked and he couldn’t help, and he was sick of Ardyn’s smug grin. Gods it all pissed him off.

After Prompto had come out victorious in the Lab, Noctis had assumed that that was it when it came to MTs in this place, he was wrong. Right after that in one of the hallways stood an MT and Noctis guaranteed that it wouldn’t be the last. Prompto’s attack (an attack Noctis was not aware his friend could perform) was carried out perfectly and Noctis could see his blondes back straighten in pride and the prince had almost smiled at that, until Prompto’s shoulder soon dropped as he looked down at the MT. Noctis knew why, they all knew they had all heard the tapes. Prompto had kneeled down and looked like he had said something yet it was so quiet none of them heard it.

“Isn’t so fun killing now, is it?”

None of them responded. In Noctis’ mind, Ardyn could fuck off, no matter what Prompto, HIS Prompto was NOT a killer.

The next hallway had another MT, except this time it was moving during its patrol – up and down the hallway, its boots creating a melody of echoes that reached his Prompto’s ears. He stayed hidden around the corner until the MT was facing away from him, then he snuck behind it. They were too close to the end of the hallway and the MT would turn around before Prompto could take it down so he hid in a gap in the wall and hoped the MT wouldn’t see him. He had held his breath until the MT passed him, then he jumped.

He knew he could’ve just snuck past the MT, save the need for the struggle, and leave it there, yet, he couldn’t. Leaving it to wander these empty hallways to do nothing but march up and down with no real goal or anyone to stop it, sounded to him like he was letting it suffer. So, each MT he saw, he stopped.

For a small amount of time, the hallways were empty however he was still cautious as he rounded every corner, he was glad he did as he came across a larger hallway with four MTs that hadn’t noticed him yet. They were all grouped together so he couldn’t take them out one by one, even with the wider hallway he still didn’t want to get to close – there was no cover but there was an advantage point; a ladder to his left leaded to a small platform up above, with his current weapons though it would be hard to hit them from that distance even with his good aim. He stepped back into the previous hallway, where there had been another breakroom which he had ignored earlier as he didn’t need to stop.

Entering the breakroom, Prompto saw some guns in a rack along the back wall. Among these many guns was a sniper rifle. _Perfect._

He set himself up on the small platform and took aim. Headshot: one down, another headshot: two down, two more shots: two more down. It was over in seconds and the MTs hadn’t had the chance to take action. Prompto left the sniper on the platform and walked to the MTs. He had kneeled beside all four and said the same words: “I’m sorry”.

The wider hallway had led him to a much large door similar to the Lab one. He took a small breath and stepped through.

This room was brightly lit and inside it was…himself?! There wasn’t just one of him there was a bunch of _things_ that looked just like him. They weren’t exactly the same but they were close enough for it not to be a coincidence. Each one was in individual chamber with wires attached to them from above. Their heads hung low slightly to the side as though they were dead. In front of each chamber was a small console with the words: ‘To be incinerated’ on its screen.

Prompto hadn’t moved from his spot, just past the door, he didn’t know if he frozen in shock, fear or disgust he just couldn’t move his legs his mind wouldn’t let him. He tried to open his mouth to speak but only air was blown out, he tried again.

“What…what is this?”

What were these things? Why did they look so similar to him? Did this mean that he…? No, no it couldn’t be, it was impossible there was no way he was…

He felt sick like he was going to puke, he pushed it down and willed himself to step forward further into the room. There was so many of them, filling the enormous room. He approached a random chamber, he wouldn’t look at its face, he couldn’t do it. So, instead his eyes squinted at what he could see through the slightly fogged up chamber. It just looked like any other human except its positioning was weird in how its limbs were sprawled in weird angles. Trying to get rid of the fog he raised his hand and touched the glass chamber, instantly a feeling of cold consumed his hand like it had grabbed it, however it didn’t help him see any clearer. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore, he raised his head to look at its face. It was similar, really similar to himself especially seeing it this close and that just creeped him out even more. He could see its eyes were closed and it wasn’t breathing so he guessed it was dead, had it ever been alive?

A flicker of darkness caught Prompto’s attention, his eyes spotted a bit of black on its wrist that looked just like his… _no, please no._ It had a barcode, just like his, he didn’t have to look at his to know that the design was similar but the numbers were different he had inspected that bit of ink all his life, he knew the pattern of lines and numbers and he had wished it to go away as it just proved that he was somehow different. He hadn’t known how it made him different, he just knew no one else had one so he must be the abnormal one. But if this thing, that looks so similar to him, has one then does that mean he’s ones of them? One of these things it these chamber, whatever they were.

Prompto had practically ran around the room checking almost every single chamber; they all had a barcode.

He sunk to the floor, his head in his hands. How could this have happened? Why was he like this? Just, what the hell was he? _Gods why did everything had to go to shit?_

He wasn’t sure how long he just sat there on the floor in silence, the only sounds came from his harsh breaths with himself feeling like he was nothing but broken pieces of confusion muddled together, he hoped it was only minutes he couldn’t waste too much time. He had to get to them.

Exiting this room was a good start, so where was the door? Still sat on the floor Prompto twisted himself around until he found a door behind some of the other chambers. Just as he was going to get up, his hand felt something that was not the floor. Looking under his right Prompto saw a small crumpled piece of paper. _This is a bad idea, I already know stuff I don’t want to, I shouldn’t pick it up, I shouldn’t read it._ But he did because it was there and no matter how much he tried to convince himself he didn’t want to know, somewhere in the back of his head truly knew that he did.

It appeared to be some kind of result document that probably fell loose from a file. It told him everything. Maybe he already knew and he didn’t let himself believe it but with the literally physical evidence in front of him he couldn’t ignore it now. On the sheet was a list of barcodes with a picture of one of the chambers and some text. It read: ‘Failed human tests subjects for Magitek programme. To be incinerated immediately’.

He knew he should’ve been freaked out by what the paper had confirmed but he wasn’t. Whether it was because he already secretly knew it but hadn’t accepted it or because he just felt empty, he didn’t know.

So, after reading the sheet he tossed it to the floor like it was nothing but rubbish and went to the door, which didn’t open. This time Prompto didn’t even feel a tinge of anger or sadness, he just turned to the console. The text on the screen was different compared to the other one instead of it displaying ‘code needed’, it displayed: ‘Barcode needed’.

Prompto knew what he had to do, that didn’t make it any easier. His hands shook as he removed his leather band, raised his wrist to the console and let it scan him. Any minuscule amount of hope he had left was crushed as the console accepted his barcode and opened the door. Even with all he had seen, he had still tried to tell himself that it was all a big joke, that he wasn’t one of them, yet a small console had proved it all correct - it established the truth like it had slapped him across the face yelling ‘THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE’. The proof just kept stacking up, he couldn’t just push it aside. He was an MT, he was a monster, a freak, he was an enemy to the crown- to Noct, he was empty, he was nothing.

He just hoped the guys didn’t know.

 

He had done it, Prompto had made it past the MTs. As happy as Noctis was for that he couldn’t help but wonder how long Prompto had to go; would it take hours? Maybe even longer than a day? Noctis wouldn’t admit it to anyone but he was running out of energy, his body ached and he was struggling to stay conscious. But he couldn’t sleep, not yet, he had to watch Prompto, he had to see that he was alright for himself. Also, when Prompto did get to them, he wants to see it - he wants to see his blonde in person and then get the hell out of here. If Prompto could do all this for them, then Noctis could at least stay awake for him.

Ignis had stopped trying to come up with anymore ideas or plans, they had helped Prompto all they could for now. Even when he does arrive, Ignis doubted they could help then either. They only had one chance, one way out and that was Prompto. On the screen the blonde had entered through a rather large room then the screen changed camera to the one inside said room. It was… Ignis didn’t know what it was but that blow to the head must’ve affected him more than he thought. What he was seeing couldn’t be correct, there was multiple Prompto’s in the room or at least things that looked almost exactly like him.

Prompto appeared to be frozen after stepping into the room, all colour drained from his face. His face was covered in fear and confusion, both emotions seemed to be battling to appear on his facial expression. That showed Ignis that his eyes were speaking true, they were all seeing it, they all didn’t know how to react. Even Gladio had stopped trying to struggle free of his gag.

Noctis knew his eyes were wide and that he probably looked very amusing to Ardyn but he didn’t care, he was to focused on what was in that room. What was going on? Who are those people? Why did they look so much like Prompto?

“What…what is this?”

Prompto’s small comment broke Noctis’ trance and he willed his gaze to focus back to Prompto who was now wondering further into the room – looking around every part of it.

His friend had approached one of the chambers and had examined it closely. Prompto’s back was to the camera so Noctis couldn’t see his friends face but he could see when Prompto’s body seemed to tense as he gazed down at the chamber thing’s hand. Something in the chamber must’ve triggered something in his friend, as he started rushing chamber to chamber across the room. What was wrong? What had Prompto seen? Noctis swore he was going to go mad with all these questions.

After a while Prompto stopped and had sunk to the floor. If Noctis was worried before, he was near to being frantic right now, was Prompto ok? Was he injured? In his distraught state, Noctis couldn’t stop the pathetic mumble of “Prompto” escape his lips.

“Aww missing your poor little friend are we, your highness?” Ardyn mocked. He was finding this to be much more entertaining than he had hoped. Prompto was playing his role perfectly and the dear prince’s reactions were even more emotional than he thought they would be.

Despite Ardyn’s words Noctis didn’t even flicker a scowl in his direction, he couldn’t tear his gaze from his blonde who looked so…goddamn alone. Noctis, unknowingly, pushed his hands forward (his wrists still bounded) as though to reach toward Prompto.

Eventually after an agonizingly few minutes, Prompto moved as though he was about to get up but stopped as his hand touched a bit of paper of the floor. The blonde had picked the paper up and read it. Both Noctis, Ignis and Gladio couldn’t see the front of the paper, the screen only showed them the back of the paper – which was blank and Prompto’s face whose eyes were scanning the paper in concentration.

Noctis could see the visible change in his friend as he read, it was a similar to his down hearted mood in the breakroom earlier but it was so much worse. Prompto’s eyes appeared even more dull than what they had been in the breakroom, his face was blank and no smile or even a hint of happiness rested on his face like it usually did. This sent a jolt of fear down Noctis’ spine, never in his whole life had he ever seen Prompto so empty he had always seemed so full with life and emotion. Panic, dread, worry all settled into Noctis mind as he watched his friend mindlessly get up and somehow open the door after messing with the console – which they couldn’t see as it was blocked by Prompto.

What was on that sheet?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading   
> Thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos in the past - those notifications always make me smile :)
> 
> Next Chapter is the big one as Prom will finally get to Noct
> 
> Plz leave a comment if ya wish 
> 
> http://lexzera.tumblr.com/


	13. Finding them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're finally all reunited.  
> But it's not all happiness and smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy ;)

Was it possible to feel nothing? To think that you were nothing? That you didn’t deserve to be considered human or alive? That if you died no one would weep or mourn, no one would even notice because you weren’t worth anything to anyone?

It was.

His senses didn’t pick up anything. He didn’t pick up sounds. He smelt nothing. He saw nothing. He made no sounds. He didn’t even know if he was breathing. Yet, somehow, he was still walking. Not only was he walking, he was also somehow heading in the right direction. He may feel like he is in an abyss of darkness – suffocating, within it all he still knew one thing, he still had one small purpose: to save them.

Maybe they wouldn’t need him after that, maybe they would be better off without him but for now he can find comfort in the fact that they’re waiting for him.

That was the one thought he had, that was the only thought he needed.

If he read the map correctly then another large room should be coming up, although, right now he didn’t trust what his hazy eyes told him. He couldn’t fight like this, _snap out of it Prompto! You need_ _to focus!_ if he couldn’t read a map how was he suppose to defend himself against Ardyn and drag everyone out?

Gradually, his senses did come back to him. He still felt awful but he had his mind back and that was the most important thing right now. He had to be strong, he had to get to them, he couldn’t give up not on them, not now, not ever. And if he was lucky they wouldn’t give up on him either, they would wait for him to come and they could leave this monstrous place riddled with his dark past behind them.

Another large door laid ahead of him, this one was much more different than the others. It was had a dark silver colour with spirals of red, it had no handle or doorknob or console (Prompto hoped it opened automatically). He stepped up to the door, which didn’t open. _Not again._ Prompto searched the door, with no luck of finding any kind of clue of how to open it. Then a voice sounded through the hallway.

“Looks like our esteemed star of the show has finally arrived. Please come in, we’re all waiting for you”.

_Ardyn._ No doubt about it that was Ardyn’s voice, he was in there, but what he said…’ _we’re all waiting for you.._. does that mean they were all in there? Had he finally reached the guys? The door opened, with his gun aimed, he walked inside.

This room was bigger than the others and emptier too. He was currently on a lower floor which was just an open space. To his left Prompto could see a platform with railing and a set of stairs that was a level higher than himself where there were three figures. Wait, was that?

“PROMPTO!”

Noct, Iggy, Gladio, they were all there. Just seeing their faces caused his inner darkness to be forgotten and his spirits to raise, if only a little. They all seemed to be alright. No injuries as far as he could see. They were all looking at him. For some reason Gladio was gagged but he looked happy nonetheless, Ignis looked a little haggard, other than that he seemed fine and was giving Prompto a small smile. Noctis, who had called out his name, looked the least affected by the situation, if anything his eyes appeared bright and his smile was one of the biggest Prompto had ever seen by him.

It felt like it had been forever since he had let himself smile, seeing them however made the brightest smile appear on Prompto’s face. He had found them, they were ok, he had done it. In that one moment, everything was good not perfect as he still needed to get them down and out but after everything that had happened, right now he felt much calmer like he could finally relax. Until he saw the screen.

When he first saw them all, he had quickly disregarded everything else in that room, the pure relief he felt overwhelmed everything else so he hadn’t noticed it. The screen currently showed the room they were all in, it was clear that the footage was a security feed from security cameras. Security cameras that had been in every room he had been in, he knew they were there yet he had ignored them thinking that they were deactivated or broken. That meant…they saw everything, the Lab, the records room where all those _things_ were. They were watching, Ardyn had showed it all. How much did they see? Did they know what he was?

“Prom?”

Prompto snapped back into focus, Noctis was looking at him worried with no hint of disgust or shock on his face. If they did know, they weren’t showing it. No, they mustn’t know if they did Noctis wouldn’t be showing such concern towards his frozen state, No, he wouldn’t even be able to look at him if he knew. The cameras must’ve been looking at the wrong angle, he didn’t know how much it showed them but he knew it didn’t show them everything. He would have to tell them eventually, for now however he can make the most of how they see him now.

Realizing that he was staring, still frozen, Prompto slightly shook his head and shot them another smile. Time to lift the mood.

“Hey! Funny seeing you guys here”

All three faces lifted at that, including Noctis who only moments ago had a deep frown on his face. Good, Noctis shouldn’t have to waste his concern to someone, no, _something_ like him.

“Think you can get us down Prom? My arms hurt” Noctis said, although he was smiling way too much to be seriously complaining.

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

“Are you sure about that dear Prompto?” taunted a voice in the shadows at the opposite end of the room.

Prompto’s shoulders slumped, _Ardyn, of course it couldn’t be that easy._

Ardyns stepped forward towards Prompto, who had turned to face him. His strides were slow and leisurely like he had all the time in the world. Each step felt mocking to Prompto, he wondered if he should just shoot him there and then, would that help? Would it buy them enough time?

“It’s so good to see you again Prompto, I was almost worried that our hero wouldn’t make it here”, Ardyn lifted a gaze at Noctis, “although, not as worried as our dear prince.”

He wouldn’t show fear, not to Ardyn he refused to give him that satisfaction. He kept his back straight, his gaze steady looking straight at Ardyn, his voice steady with no hesitation or hitch.

“What do you want Ardyn?”

The man before him looked taken back at that he, however, quickly recovered and smirked at him.

“Hmm what do I want? I suppose that is the question isn’t it? Why go through all this effort and set all of this up?” he shrugged “I suppose really, all I wanted was to have some fun and play some games, is that so bad?”.

_A game?! He thought all of this was just a game?! That bastard!_

Ardyn continued, either not noticing Prompto’s fist clenching and his gaze hardening or ignoring it, “The real question you should ask Prompto is: what happens now?”

Enough of this, Ardyn was messing with him like a toy – taunting him to see if he would do something. Prompto knew what he wanted, he knew what would happen now because it has been stuck in his mind all the way here and he’ll be damned if he lets Ardyn’s words make him falter now.

“What happens now is that I’m going to get my friends out of here!”.

Ardyn laughed, “My, my, such confidence and boldness, perfect for the role as a hero. However, I’m afraid that words will achieve nothing and getting you and your ‘friends’ out of here will take much more than just some façade of confidence.”

Prompto didn’t back down, his silence seemed to be enough for Ardyn as he continued.

“However, I am a fair man and I will give you a chance to get you and your so called ‘friends’ out of here. Let’s make a deal”, Ardyn stepped closer to him, “it’s an easy enough deal Prompto: survive and I’ll let you all go”.

“Survive what?”

Another smirk shone on Ardyn’s face, “A small part of my magitek army, three rounds, that’s it – defeat them and I’ll let you go. Die and…well you understand, yes?”

At Prompto’s node Ardyn brought his hand forward.

“Do we have a deal, Mr Argentum?”.

 

Noctis couldn’t believe his eyes when Prompto had first stepped through the door, Ardyn had left a few moments before making up an excuse that Noctis hadn’t paid attention to. First he thought he was hallucinating until he saw Gladio and Ignis also look at the blonde. He was here, he was actually here – breathing, uninjured and right there in front of him.

His voice almost broke when he shouted his name as the blonde’s gaze had finally found them, “PROMPTO!”

Noctis could feel his face light up in a smile, gods he hadn’t felt this happy in so long. Time had felt so slow in here waiting for him and now that he was here, Noctis could’ve jumped in joy – well, if he wasn’t tied up. He felt his heart jump a little when he saw Prompto return the smile, he had missed that smile - seeing Prompto so disheartened on the screen had pained him so much, that wasn’t what his Prompto usually looked like, the blonde should’ve been smiling, like he is now, not looking like the whole world had crashed down on him. Noctis couldn’t help but feel guilty, Ardyn’s words coming flooding back to him, Ardyn was right this was his fault if he hadn’t been such an idiot Prompto would have never had to go through all this, none of them would’ve. But right now, that could all be put aside, it didn’t matter not when Prompto was here and smiling. Or he was smiling.

Looking at him now, Noctis saw that Prompto’s smile had disappeared and in place of it was shock and horror plastered on his face as he stared at them. Did they really look that bad? They had been all knocked out twice now, maybe they had more injuries than Noctis thought. If that is the case then Prompto was probably just troubled by their current state.

Frowning, he called out to him, “Prom?” he had made his tone calm, comforting and soft at the blonde to try to reassure him that they were all ok.

It appeared to work, Prompto shook his head and his expression returned back to a smile, not as bright as the previous one but it was still a smile although in Noctis opinion it appeared slightly forced. _At least he is smiling._

“Hey! Funny seeing you guys here”

Noctis smiled even more, trust Prompto to make every situation a little brighter. He decided to join in on the joking, no point in moping around now that Prompto was here.

“Think you can get us down Prom? My arms hurt”

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

“Are you sure about that dear Prompto?”

Ardyn, damn it, Noctis had hoped he would’ve taken longer to come back. But, Ardyn plans everything and this inconvenient entrance was probably planned too. At the sound of his announcement Noctis smile was quickly wiped off his face and was replaced with a frown which deepened when he saw Prompto’s shoulders slump.

The mocking and toying is what Noctis expected Ardyn would do, what did surprise him however was how collected Prompto sounded and how firm he was on getting them out of here. Noctis didn’t think he had ever heard his friend sound so serious or look so irritated. Yet, Ardyn wasn’t so affected – a little shocked maybe, but that was it.

All three of them had watched, silently, they didn’t know whether it would be better to interrupt Ardyn or keep their mouths sealed so they had just stuck with the second option. Ardyn had finally ended his questions and vagueness and got to the point: a deal. A deal that in no way did Noctis agree with for multiple reasons; one of the them being that Ardyn was a snake filled with venom and snakes don’t keep deals, the main reason was because of the terms of the deal. Win and you’ll get to leave (he highly doubted that), lose and you’ll…die. No, there was no way Noctis was going to let this happen, this wasn’t deal it was a fight, a battle, all in the name of Ardyn’s entertainment – just an extra feature for his ‘show’, the bastard.

Noctis wouldn’t let Prompto die for him, no way in hell. When they’re all together, sure, they can all work together in the fight and Noctis knew Prompto could hold his own, but just Prompto? Even if it wasn’t guaranteed he would die – he would NOT take that chance. Not Prompto, not his Prompto.

Ardyn had his hand out, waiting for Prompto to shake it to seal the deal, Prompto slowly lifted his…

“NO!”

He couldn’t take it anymore, seeing his friend push his life to the side like it meant nothing and instead focusing on Noctis’ survival rather than his own. Noctis couldn’t allow that, Prompto had already done so much he didn’t need to do this too, this was asking too much.

“Do you have something to say your majesty?”, Ardyn taunted.

Noctis chose to ignore him and faced Prompto instead, “You don’t have to do this Prom! Please don’t gamble your life away. Just get out of here!”.

Perhaps he was being selfish, pushing Prompto away, refusing his help, all his own decisions when he wasn’t the only here who needed to be saved. Gladio and Ignis… they were here too, they were waiting for Prompto just as long as he had.

“Noctis is correct Prompto”

In a quick, fluid motion Noctis head whipped round to Ignis, he…agreed to this?

“As much as I was holding onto hope for some sort of rescue, there is no point in throwing your life away for something that isn’t guaranteed, not even for your prince. Even if you win, we have no idea if Ardyn will keep his word”.

Ardyn put a hand over his heart in fake hurt, “Ignis you offend me, when have I ever not kept my word. I’m a respectable man” Ardyn’s gaze bore into Prompto’s eyes, “and I always honour my deals”.

“We don’t know that for sure. Prompto just get yourself out of here, we’ll be fine”. However, level Ignis voice was, it wasn’t convincing anyone they all knew he was lying, yet Gladio still huffed in agreement his head nodding.

After a few seconds, Prompto turned to face them with a sad sort of smile on his face, “sorry guys, but you’re my friends, I can’t just leave you”, his voice quavered a little, however it was still strong and so was his stare as he looked straight at Noctis, “and Noct, I said I would do my best to protect you… I failed that earlier and now I’m gonna make up for it and get you, all of you, out of here”.

No, no, no this couldn’t happen, please Prompto no... don’t do this. If he saw Prompto di-, fail at this he would never forgive himself, he would mourn every last living second he had, he wouldn’t smile ever again, not without Prompto. Without Prompto in his life, he might as well be dead. How did Prompto not see that?

A few tears escaped Noctis usual façade of indifference and he frankly couldn’t give a shit. A broken sob emitted from his lips, “Prom...please…no”.

Prompto couldn’t bare looking at all their down faces; Gladio’s eyes seemed to be almost begging him to stop, Ignis’ lips appeared to be slightly quivering and Noct… he was crying. Prompto couldn’t look at that, not when he knew he was the reason it was happening, he was making Noct cry – what kind of friend does that? _A friend who is nothing but an empty shell who doesn’t deserve Noctis’ company especially knowing what he is._

He had to tear his eyes away from them, focusing back on Ardyn – his voice and eyes hardened once more, “I’m getting them out of here, no matter the cost”.

Ardyn grinned, “so, we have a deal then?”.

Prompto shook his hand.

“We have a deal”.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo dudes i'm backk with another long ass chapter WOOOOOOO 
> 
> I made this fanfic for one simple reason....well two i guess  
> 1) Love Promptis  
> 2) To show Prompto as the badass character he is. I was kinda tired of seeing Prompto as the weaker character when he is just as strong if not stronger, dont get me wrong i kno my writing will never be as good as other fanfic writers out there (i kno that i have ready MANY) but i had an idea and i wanted to share so FUCK IT 
> 
> Soz for any mistakes or if this chapter (or all of the fic) is awfulllll
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> Leave a comment if ya want or come chat to meh, i don't mind :)
> 
>  
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	14. The fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto needed to win, he would save them, he had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope u enjoy
> 
> if ur a frequent visitor, welcome back

Once Ardyn had resigned himself from beside Prompto and had moved to stand next to Noctis a lot happened quickly, Prompto struggled to keep up. Ardyn moved, a button was pressed, a door opened, some words were said and a small group of troopers marched towards him. With one last look to Noctis, Prompto drew his blade and gun.

“Let’s start off easy, I wouldn’t want to overwhelm you”.

First few went down with some well-placed shots, but they were getting close now. He maneuvered around the closest one to him and truck it down with a slice across its back. He didn’t have time to celebrate or even be slightly proud of that move, more were approaching – fast. Dodging and blocking each attack Prompto swiftly cleared out the troopers, using both his gun and sword, without taking any damage.

That was…surprisingly easy.

Usually a group that size would take longer and that was when he had three other people taking part, so why was that so quick? He didn’t even break a sweat. He looked to his friends above, each had a bewildered facial expression, so, he wasn’t the only one thinking that was weird. Prompto raised his eyebrow at Ardyn in question and part confusion – Ardyn just kept smirking.

“Looks like it was a little too easy, not much of a show was it?”.

Ardyn leaned against the railing, the amusement in his voice clear, “That was rather abrupt wasn’t it? Amazing how capable you are with a sword and blade when you shut that pretty little mouth of yours, hmm? It’s almost as if you just do it automatically when you concentrate enough. Curious.”

Prompto simply stared at him, his eyes confused yet also filled with dread.

“Well I suppose it’s no wonder, really, that was how you were programmed – to fight silently and deadly so that you were given an advantage to the enemy”.

_Automatically, programmed, oh gods, no don’t say it, not in front of them, not in front of HIM._ He knew what Ardyn was leading towards, his words were part vague, part revealing but Prompto understood anyway – he just hoped the others didn’t.

“Now let’s pick up the pace, wouldn’t want this to end too soon”.

No more worrying could be placed on Prompto’s mind as the door opened once more and a much larger group of troopers came charging towards him, he couldn’t let himself get distracted not while an army of MTs were swinging their weapons at him – one distraction could mean death which would mean he would fail and they would be trapped here and he would be forever useless to Noctis.

With the amount of MTs that came through that door Prompto instantly thought that this was going to be much, much harder and would probably end up with him having some injuries – hopefully not major ones that would hindrance his performance in the final round. But that’s not what happened. Instead he stood amongst the many fallen MTs with no cuts, not even a small one, and it all being over in a matter of one or two minutes.

This was impossible, there was no way, he couldn’t have done it that soon he must’ve just got caught up in the moment and lost his sense of time, that must be it. However, looking at the others faces, he doubted his earlier self-reassurances, they all looked at him like they had never seen him before – Prompto couldn’t tell if it was shocked or amazement plastered on their faces. Except Ardyn whose smirk never left him. A few seconds silently past, Prompto panting faintly throughout it, until an awful cackle sounded from Ardyn his maniacal laughter travelled around the room and took a while to leave. Ardyn took a breath to calm himself down.

“Marvellous performance I must say. You’ve fought well and have almost earned you and your friend’s freedom. Before I let you go however, I have a final gift for you”.

The door opened once more and hopefully for the final time. Prompto braced himself awaiting the mass number of troopers he expected to come out from the door, listening out for the many loud footsteps running at him. However, this time it felt different, there was no loud noises from the door, no running, instead Prompto heard a single pair of footsteps walking. They didn’t sound heavy or urgent, which Prompto questioned, if there wasn’t going to be lots of troopers he had guessed that it would’ve been something big instead but the footsteps were all wrong for that.

Coming closer to the light, Prompto could see a silhouette that appeared to look…human. As far as he could tell the shadow looked completely normal with no appearance of it being a threat. Still, he didn’t back down he stayed in his defensive position with his gun poised in the air aiming at the figure’s head with his sword gripped tightly in his left hand. When it approached the light and its full appearance was revealed Prompto felt the air leave his lungs, _no, it can’t be_.

“Let me introduce unit 0578104569, one of the deadliest machines we have”.

Standing before him was himself… or at least a version of himself. It looked just like the things in those pods except it was awake and staring right at him. But those eyes, they were empty, completely rid of any light – did it even feel? Or think for itself? Prompto guessed not, to him, it looked like a robot waiting for its commands from the one in control (who was most likely Ardyn). He felt dizzy, this was too much, seeing one of those _things_ walk around and be actually functioning just like a simple MT but look _exactly like him. This is what I am, this is what I have always been._ Ardyn was slowing torturing him with the clues and facts he had left everywhere – the documents, the chambers and now an actually awake clone of him, Prompto knew it but that didn’t stop them affecting him. He felt sick, his hand with the pistol shook furiously with such vigour he was amazed that he hadn’t dropped it yet.

He had just wanted to save his friends, was that so much to ask?... Wait, his friends, they were here with him, they were seeing it too. Oh gods, how will they look at him now? No matter how much he wanted to see their faces Prompto couldn’t bring himself to look at them, instead he just stared straight ahead at himself. Even though he had an idea of what he would see on their faces, he didn’t want to confirm it, to make it real, he wouldn’t be able to take it. Plus, clone or not, no matter how they saw him, he was going to get them out, which meant he would have to win against this clone – fail now and he would be proving what had been in his mind for a long time that he was insignificant, worthless, he couldn’t even call himself human anymore. Pathetic. He hated thinking about what he looked like at that moment, shaking, close to crying, when he needed to be strong and just do one thing: save them.

“Prompto, I would like to introduce…well, yourself I suppose. This what you are Prompto: a killing machine. Unfortunly for you however this particular model is an upgraded one compared to your own, this one went through the whole program and reached perfection, its even more perfect than what you had become when you were here.” Ardyn chuckled, to himself more than anyone else. “So, good luck in trying to kill this one, let the fight begin”.

So, this was it, this was the final round – an experiment versus a failed experiment. That was truth, that thing in front of him was no different to himself and now _they_ knew it too. Why would they want him when he was nothing but a thing, an experiment? For now, he supposed, it wasn’t important – just win and leave, let them be happy without you.

The voice of its commander seemed to activate the machine, it was charging towards Prompto with a sword in hand. It reached him unnaturally quickly and swung, Prompto dodged barely missing the edge of sword against his neck, it gave him no chance to strike back as its attacks were ongoing, quick and relentless with no signs of weaknesses or gapes Prompto could use. Then he felt a sharp pain against his shoulder, he was too slow, luckily the sword only nicked him – nothing to worry about but it stung like a bitch. He had to distance himself otherwise it would just keep hitting him until it gets him injured fatally.

He still had his sword and gun in his hands, he sprinted from the clone to the opposite side of the room – taking quickfire shots all the way there, most reached the clone however it didn’t seem to be affected by it. Prompto stopped and turned to get a good aim at its head, he didn’t expect it to have run that far so quickly he only had time for a hasten shot before he had to play defensive again. Ardyn wasn’t kidding when he said this thing was upgraded, it may have looked just like him but it was a much better fighter which wasn’t good news for himself. He didn’t stand a chance against this thing, maybe if he was better with quicker, smoother movements he could’ve been able to fight back. But that was always the problem wasn’t it? He was never good enough. Noctis, Gladio, Ignis they could’ve all done better than he had, they would’ve reached him faster if he was the one Ardyn had captured, they would’ve been able to stop this clone, rescue everyone and get of here with only a few scrapes. But they couldn’t help him now, he was on his own for this fight and it might be his last one.

It had reached him; its strikes were brutal yet precise and it showed no sign of stopping. Prompto knew eventually he would make a mistake and the clone would have its chance to cut him down with no way of stopping it. There was an opening, Prompto realised as he continued to block the attacks, in the clone’s strikes it was small but there and it happened quite frequently. It could’ve been a trap, a way to lure him into a false sense of seeing an upper hand either way Prompto was going to go down if he just kept defending he had to attack and this was the only way he could, so trap or not Prompto acted.

Just before its next attack, with the opening showing itself, Prompto rapidly drew his gun and fired at its head while it jumped back from the force Prompto struck forwards towards it repeatedly with his blade. It worked. Before the clone had time to defend itself Prompto slashed his blade on its legs – it went down. From there Prompto aimed for parts that were the most useful to the clone; its arm holding the sword and its legs so that it couldn’t get back up. Thinking about it, Prompto realised that his quick attacks on the clone were very similar to the ones he was blocking only moments ago the only difference being that Prompto was carefully striking certain limbs. Yet, he didn’t care if the attacks were similar or what it meant if they were. Funny that, he was so worried throughout this whole faciality bullshit about who or what he was and what he had discovered meant and now that his cursed past is being used in action, he couldn’t care less, he didn’t have time to care especially now that the clone had rolled away from him and was ready to attack once more. He had done a lot of damage to the clone when it was on the floor, it was now limping – so its attacks would be slower- and bleeding. Whether it could feel or not Prompto didn’t know however its countenance was furious and it definitely seemed more determined to hit Prompto deep. And it did.

He was stupid, not focused enough and tired from all the fighting, all these reasons together let the clone land another hit on him and it was severe. It was a cut across his stomach – not good. Blood was starting to spill from the wound, Prompto still managed to roll out of the way of the next strike. Prompto put himself as much distance from the clone as possible and gripped the wound to try to stop the bleeding. While the clone gradually limped to him he had a proper look at the wound, it wasn’t as deep as he thought, it was quite big and hurt like hell but the amount of blood coming from it wasn’t a lot, in fact it had mainly stopped. The wound wouldn’t make him die from blood loss that was for sure, it would slow him down though. He could still fight.

The clone hadn’t reached him yet so he fired as much as he could before it got too close. No matter how much he sliced and shot this thing it didn’t seem to even be close to death, it was injured and bleeding but it never stopped.

His bones were aching, he was bleeding, he was slowing down, the fighting still continued he didn’t know how longed as moments just blurred together. The same thing happened over and over again, the clone attacked, Prompto defended, Prompto attacked, the clone defended. It didn’t stop until Prompto somehow found himself messing up one of his blocks which the clone used for its advantage it swung its sword, Prompto barely dodged the attack and lost his balance ending up on the floor, lying on his back. The clone was above him its sword hung just above Prompto’s neck, this was it, he had lost, he had failed Noct, he couldn’t protect any of them.

Clapping sounded from above, Prompto saw Ardyn with a very pleased expression.

“Oh my, poor Prompto, you had tried so hard yet, you have still failed. If only you had stayed here you could’ve been so much more, we had made you so perfect, now look at you, pathetic on the floor waiting for death, although I suppose that’s what an experiment like you deserves. Goodbye Prompto, don’t worry I’ll take care of the prince for you.”

Ardyn waved his hand and that seemed to signal to the clone to finish it. It raised its blade above its head and then it struck down.

“PROMPTO!”

Noctis’ voice was filled with despair when he had cried out for him. He couldn’t end it like this, Noct needed him and the way he yelled, it strongly tugged at Prompto’s heart. He wouldn’t let Ardyn do as he wishes, he wouldn’t let him hurt them.

The blade was coming down, with a final push of effort, Prompto raised his hand and caught the blade in his hand, keeping it in a solid grip.

“I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR EXPERIMENTS!”

It hurt so damn much yet he kept his hand firm and forced the blade back up. The clone’s eyes widened slightly in alarm Prompto paid it no mind however, he kept pushing and slowly started to sit up, then with his other hand he grabbed his gun and fired.

The clone fell backward and Prompto raised to his feet. The slice on his hand was pretty deep with blood gushing out of it. The clone would get back up soon and he couldn’t hold his weapons with his hand like this so Prompto tore his shirt, wrapped it around the wound and tied a simple knot. The clone got back up, although it struggled to do so, and looked ready to fight once more. Prompto needed to finish this now, he wasn’t in any better condition than the clone but his energy was back and he was _pissed._ With the new-found energy and Noctis cry echoing in the back of his mind, Prompto fought as hard as he could and soon the clone fell. It couldn’t get back up, it had been struck to many times and was now twitching on the floor. Prompto stood over it, whether it had emotions or not he couldn’t leave it there to suffer like that so he raised his gun once more.

Then he turned to Ardyn.

“I win”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading  
> apologises for any mistakes or if it's just shit ;)
> 
> Leave a comment if ya want or come chat to meh, i don't mind :)
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	15. The monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He did it... Prompto won.  
> Then...  
> Why isnt everything back to how it was before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update  
> thanks for ur patience  
> hope ya enjoy

 

He could feel blood trickle down his hand from the still aching cut, the poorly made bandage loosened from the fight. His chest was heaving with heavy breaths, his forehead slightly wet from sweat.

That was it, he had done it, he had won.

However, he didn’t feel like he thought he would, there was no happiness or relief in the victory only anger as in front of him stood the man who had started all of it, he had planned it all, stole his friends, showed him a past he didn’t need nor want to know. Ardyn’s smirk had been wiped clean from his face in its place stood a small scowl with a pair of partly fearful eyes to match.

_Oh, he should be scared._ Prompto wasn’t done, not yet.

“It appears as though you have won”, a slow clap followed, “congratulations”.

_He…he had won, he was alive._

Noctis swore he had almost broken down when he saw his best friend on the floor at the clone’s mercy, he could barely hear his own cry that had come from his mouth, he had waited with baited breath watching that sword swing down. He was going to lose him, he was going to die and it would’ve been all _his_ fault. If he had, Noctis wouldn’t know what he would’ve done; struggle and try to escape? Get out of the chains, kill Ardyn and avenge Prompto? Or just hang there, all life and will escaped from him once he had seen the blonde’s body?

The _thing_ from the fight laid beside Prompto, black (blood?) oozing from its wounds, the final bullet lodged clearly in its skull. Up close he could see slight details on its face, it was even more clear that it looked exactly like the others in those chambers and almost the same as his best friend. _How? This doesn’t make any sense._

Gods he couldn’t take this, all this thinking of how’s or what if’s, Prompto nearly _died_ for Shiva sake. All he wanted right now was to get out of these chains, hold onto his blonde and never let him go. Although, the way Prompto was looking at the man beside him with fire in his eyes, it seemed he had other ideas.

Beside him Noctis could see the fright in Ardyn, this was definitely NOT part of his plan that was for sure, he hadn’t expected Prompto to win and now he had him cornered.

Reaching into his pocket Ardyn took out a singular key, “Well I suppose I did make a deal and I intend to keep it”, he held out the key in front of him but didn’t let it go, “here, the key to your friends’ freedom – the cuffs all have the same keyhole so the one key will work on all three sets”. Ardyn leaned over the railing, mockingly hanging the key in the air towards Prompto, “come get it”.

A challenge if Noctis had ever heard one and without a moment hesitation, Prompto had accepted it sprinting from his spot down below up the stairs to stand barely over a metre away from Ardyn whipping out his gun and aiming it straight at Ardyn’s head. Prompto’s gaze was strong, purposeful and his arm was stretch out firm with his gun securely gripped. In reply Ardyn simply turned to him, not deterred by the gun in the slightest, his hands raised in mock surrender.

“Now, now no need for that”, he purposefully made a show of turning his head to look at the key, nodding towards it, “this really means a lot to you, hmm? After all this and still your number one priority is your friend’s freedom”, he let out a low, almost sinister sounding chuckle “oh it would be considered noble if it wasn’t so stupid”. Slowly, his hands fell back to his sides and he cocked his head toward the three, “Do you really think they’ll treat you the same after all this? That they’ll still _care_ for you? Pathetic.”

Prompto didn’t even turn to look at them instead he took a step closer to Ardyn.

“So, it is that important? I suppose it would be a shame if it were to be, oh I don’t know, inaccessible?”

Ardyn moved his arm so his hand was just above a small gap in between the platform’s railing and the floor below, a gap that was so deep you could only see the darkness and so small only something small could drop down it, something like a key. The key slipped down Ardyn’s hand, he didn’t let it fall, he just let it hung between his two fingers. That made Prompto pause, questioning his next steps, his face clearly eyeing the key in distress.

“Your one of the prince’s dogs, aren’t you Prompto? Always doing what your told for your dearest prince. So, do what dogs do best and…”, Ardyn threw the key across the room, “fetch”.

To Noctis it happened unbelievably slowly. He saw the key fly across the railing, his best friend leap over the railing chasing after it and one of the worst people he knew escape from the room, the door locking behind him. Prompto caught the key mid air and landed with a small roll then he turned his head to where Ardyn had left, a deep frown covering his face.

Noctis watched his friend get up from the floor and hesitantly make his way to them, almost like he didn’t want to face them. This was not how Noctis imagined their reunion he had expected Prompto to rush to them, fumbling with the keys as he tried to get them all out so that they could all get out of here, to be excited as he was earlier before Ardyn interrupted.

Not a word was said while Prompto approached, his friend’s weird behaviour left Noctis to struggle with his words and it looked like he wasn’t the only one. A void of silence surrounded the room, the only sounds being Prompto’s steady footsteps climbing the stairs.

Gladio was the first Prompto reached and silently he undid the man’s wrists cuffs, then he undid the ankles while the older man removed the gag, gasping for breath. When all cuffs were removed Gladio fell to his knees, lightheaded from being gagged for too long, Prompto squeezed his shoulder in support then moved to untie Ignis which was done in the same silence, not even Ignis knew what to say to their eerie rescuer so, once released, Ignis focused his attention on Gladio who was still catching his breath. Finally, Noctis saw Prompto heading towards him who, in Noctis’ mind, appeared to be walking even slower to him than the others. Reaching up to unlock his wrists with shaking hands Noctis caught a glimpse at Prompto’s eyes, which seemed so…grey, it made worry fill up his throat stopping any words he wanted to say. While unlocking his last cuff, Noctis said the only word he could.

“prom…”

_Please, just look at me_

There was no response, instead Noctis watched Prompto run out of the room.

“Prompto…no…please”.

Noctis felt water fill his eyes and ignored the calls from Ignis and Gladio as he raced after his blonde.

Prompto ran as fast as his legs would let him, he didn’t head in any particular direction he just needed to get out, away from them, away from Noct. He didn’t even look at them when unlocking their cuffs, afraid of what he would see in those eyes – hatred? Anger? Disgust? What would he see in those big, pure, blue eyes that he had grow to love. They’d be better off without him, Noctis didn’t need one of his enemies by his side, his best friend would never trust him again. He kept running.

Footsteps could be heard behind him, a set of them quickly hitting the floor. _No, no, no._ Someone was following him and Prompto hoped to the gods that it wasn’t who he thought it was. Not wanting to be caught, Prompto increased his pace even more and turned every corner he could find, determined to lose his chaser. He tilted his head to the side to see over his shoulder, behind him in his short glance he saw that he hadn’t lost the man behind him, a combination of dark hair and clothes were still following him. Luckily for him, Prompto was the quicker one so even though the figure didn’t stop, he wouldn’t catch up.

That was until Prompto found himself in an empty room with only one way in and out. He tried to turn himself around and get out the way he came in but it was too late, in the doorway – blocking his way out – stood his pursuer, panting heavily, his eyes boring into him. _Crap._

With no way out and not knowing what else to do Prompto raised his shaking hands in surrender, refusing to look at Noctis. Why had he followed him? _Please, just go._

Noctis breaths were heavy trying to draw in as much oxygen as he could. He had never run so hard in his entire life, his bad leg ached and his lungs burned. None of it mattered he had reached Prompto and although trapping Prompto in a room wasn’t planned, it worked effectively enough. However, the man himself looked like an animal, confined and vulnerable, his hands shaking and raised, his eyes filled with fear and purposely not meeting his gaze.

Noctis wanted to say so much yet he didn’t know where to begin: _Where are you going? Why did you run? Why do you look so afraid of me? Why can’t you look at me?_ And, perhaps the most pathetic one _, please can I hug you?_

His leg still burned with pain, his breath was back however so, despite the protests from his body, he moved closer to his blonde who backed up in response. That continued on until Prompto’s back hit the wall and Noctis stopped just short of reaching distance. Attentively, Noctis reached his hand out towards him, his fingers close to touching the other’s shoulder. Prompto tried to retract even further from the brunet, his eyes still not looking up.

“Prom? ...hey, it’s ok”. Noctis took another step his hand brushing against Prompto’s shoulder, “just look at me, please”, his tone was pleading, desperate. _Stop hiding from me, I’m your friend, you can trust me._

His words must’ve woken Prompto up, he lowered his hands and then paused to steel himself, he lifted his head to look at the prince. There were no tears in his eyes but what Noctis saw made his own water – so much fear in those eyes, they weren’t shining like they should, they were as dull as they were in those security feeds except this time those eyes were directed at him – he did this, he had hurt his best friend. The more he thought about it the wetter his eyes got then they simply overflowed down his cheeks. _Say something! Fix this._

“I’m sorry Noct”.

_Wait, what?_

Shouldn’t he be the one apologising? He’s the one who had scared him, what did Prompto have to be sorry for?

“I’m so, so sorry”

“Prompto, why the hell are you apologising? You have nothing to be sorry for”.

That must’ve been the wrong thing to say because now Prompto had started to cry as well, Gods he was so stupid his best friend was in distress and he didn’t know what to do. Noctis felt like a lost little kid - hopeless and confused. With no ideas or useful thoughts coming to his mind, he did the only thing he could come up with – he smiled. It was a sad, small and frankly a dumb try of a smile but it was there and he put as much into it as he could with the tears still rolling down.

“You have done nothing wrong Prom you – “

“I AM THE WRONG, DON’T YOU SEE THAT NOCT!”.

Noctis paused, “What? ...Prom that’s not – “

“STOP THIS NOCT”.

“I – “

“NO, ENOUGH. I KNOW YOU SAW EVERYTHING ON THAT SCREEN AND IN THAT ROOM, I KNOW THAT- THAT YOU KNOW WHAT… WHAT I– I AM”.

Prompto stopped himself, taking two deep breaths, calming himself.

“Prom…I don’t understand, is this because of those clones of you, I– I don’t exactly know how they were made but it isn’t your fault, Ardyn must’ve- “.

“Goddammit Noct”, there was no shouting this time, instead a small, tired tone broke through.

Noctis wasn’t going to figure it out or maybe he knew and couldn’t let himself accept it or perhaps it was just too disgusting to even consider. Either way Prompto couldn’t just watch his friend cry for him and try to comfort him, not when he didn’t know the truth. Yet, he couldn’t say it. He wanted to, he wanted to scream it for all to hear, he just couldn’t, not to him, not to Noct. So, he moved his hand and took off his wristband.

Since it no longer served a purpose, he simply tossed it to the floor – he couldn’t hide anymore. Noctis’ eyes were on him, confusion clearly marking his face. _Now or never I guess._ He looked directly at Noctis and showed him his wrist.

Within a few moments, Noctis face went from surprise to confusion then he just stared blankly at Prompto’s wrist.

When he did respond his voice was a mere whisper and still sounded just as confused “What…what?”

“It’s, um, it’s a barcode Noct”, he responded to Noctis’ unasked question, his voice was now much more level than his earlier hysterical shouting, “and do you know what this proves?”, Prompto did a sad, slow shake of his head, “those things weren’t clone of me Noct”. This was it, say it, say it to his face. Prompto looked a Noctis blue eyes, “They’re MT’s and I’m -I’m one of them”, with a deep sigh he let out a wobbly smile, “turns out, I’m nothing but a monster”. He let out a small nervous chuckle, waiting for a reaction.

“You’re, you’re an MT? But… that’s not possible you- “.

 Noctis’ tone was unnervingly hard to figure out – part of it questioning another part being… something else, it wasn’t giving Prompto any hint of what his friend might be thinking so he just kept rambling.

“I was made here Noct, right here in this facility”, Prompto continued, “here they trained me to be…. Well, a -a killer and one of your enemies” Prompto’s hand reached to scratch the back of his head, a nervous tick. “I don’t remember much, in fact I remembered nothing until tonight but I know I escaped and then I was found and a family adopted me in Lucis”. Another shaky breath got drew in, _no more tears, you don’t deserve them._ “I’m really sorry Noct”.

Nothing was said between the two after that and Prompto considered turning from the prince and just leaving, for good.

“You really think any of that matters to me?”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyyyyy feeelingggsss yayyyy  
> again sorry for late update i have just started an apprenticeship so i have less time plus i havent been motivated to write until like friday night sooooo oops?  
> anyway thanks for reading apologises if shit or if there lot of mistakessss
> 
> leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind) or come chat to meh  
> have a great day/night
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	16. Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto is awaiting the judgement of his best friend.  
> Everyone wants out of this place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy :)

 

“You really think any of that matters to me?”.

_Wait, what?_

“Huh?”

Noct smiled at him his eyes still slightly watery. “Since when did where people come from matter to you, you’ve never treated me any different just because I’m a prince”, he placed a firm grip on his shoulders, “you’ve always treated me the same as anyone else with such kindness and happiness, sometimes I wondered how the hell you’re so cheery all the time”.

“But, but I’m not…”

Gently Noctis took hold of Prompto’s wrist, his fingers gliding over the ink in his skin. There was no disgust or hesitation in his movements, he simply touched the marked skin.

“This”, Noctis motioned to his wrist, “doesn’t change anything, this doesn’t change you, you’re still Prompto.”

“I -I…you…oh” Prompto replied in a mere whisper, still partly shocked by calm Noctis’ reaction. Noct hadn’t lashed out at him, he hadn’t blamed him or even insulted him. He just accepted it. He accepted him.

A cough was heard in front of him and Prompto realised he had just been staring at Noct holding his wrist, lost in his own world. Slightly embarrassed, Prompto tore his gaze from his wrist back to Noctis’ face while Noctis let go of his wrist.

“So, you’ll stay with me, right? No more running.” Noctis pleaded “Please don’t leave me”.

Never in his life had Prompto seen Noctis looked so vulnerable or at least he had never seen him let himself look this vulnerable not even the night Prompto had caught him in the middle of a nightmare, he was scared that night but right now he just looked fragile. Noctis was never the kind of guy to show his emotions, he had always buried them so that Prompto had to observe his friend closely to really know what he was thinking and after all these years he had gotten very good at it. However right now, a stranger could see that Noctis was desperate and for Prompto’s company of all things, why? Was he really worth all this? He would be lying if he said he wanted to leave, of course he didn’t, he liked travelling with the guys, he enjoyed every second of their time together and if Noctis wanted him to stay too, well, then…

“I ain’t going nowhere Noct” Prompto promised. “Besides I don’t think you’d be able to run anywhere with how much you’re sweating right now, gross dude” he chuckled.

And just like that the vulnerable expression, replaced by a small scowl and narrowed eyes. “Well its your fault, you ran too quickly”, he grumbled and crossed his arms in defence, however he couldn’t stop a smile appearing. “We should head back”.

 

Heading back was easier said than done. Noctis had pushed himself further than he thought while chasing after Prompto and as punishment he had a throbbing pain throughout his leg so movement was painful and slow. At the start he had insisted he could walk on his own and despite the concerned look from Prompto he tried to drag himself towards the exit – he made one step before wincing in pain and stopping completely. Being the stubborn ass he was (Prompto’s words, not his) he shrugged off Prompto’s offer of help and continued to walk. Eventually Prompto stopped him once again and was adamant on lending a hand, he dragged Noctis’ arm across his shoulder and encouraged him to put most of his weight on him rather than his leg. That worked for a small while until they had to take a break, even with most of his weight being supported on Prompto, Noctis leg still couldn’t take the small bit of work it was doing without it causing agony. While resting Prompto crouch in front of him and turned his head to him with a smile.

“What are you doing?”

“Piggyback dude”

“No way, you are NOT carrying me”

“Aw come on dude you’d be in less pain plus, it’d be quicker. I won’t drop you I promise”.

Prompto rolled his shoulders in invitation, giving the prince a playful smile and eyes that Noctis just couldn’t say no to. He begrudgingly moved from his position on the floor and climbed onto Prompto’s back.

“I’m not too heavy, am I?”

“As light as a feather dude”.

Getting himself comfortable, Noctis wrapped his arms snugly around his friend’s neck and rested his head on their shoulder. As much as he hated to admit it, it was nice being close to Prompto like this, knowing that his best friend wasn’t going anywhere, so as Prompto started to walk he snuggled closer to his blonde.                  

By the time they had reached the others Noctis felt himself dozing off, todays events catching up with him, and only awoke when he felt a tap on his leg.

“Come on Noct time to wake up”.

He almost groaned at that, _almost_ , he was so comfy why would he want to move?

“Dude my arms are getting tired, don’t make me throw ya off”.

Gradually, he climbed down off Prompto’s back careful not to land too harshly on his bad leg. Once his feet hit the ground the pain came back, much less than earlier though, at least he could walk. Finding his balance, he felt Prompto touch his arm, a firm grip to help.

“You good?”.

“yeah”. Noctis answered and he smiled to prove it.

“We were wondering where you two went” said Gladio, him and Ignis walking towards them, both appeared much better than before. Gladio had gotten his breath back, he stood breathing normally next to Ignis who had his composure back fully. “Wanna tell us what that whole running away thing was?”

Sheepishly Prompto rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly replying “Um yeah, sorry about that guys. I -I um I just”.

The boy was clearly struggling with his words refusing to look at any of them, his head bowed, Ignis took pity on him.

“Perhaps we should discuss this back at the hotel. I don’t know about everyone else but I have had enough of this place”.

All agreed and Prompto let out a small sigh of relief. He had to explain himself, he knew that, however now he had time to gather his thoughts and figure out exactly _what_ he should say. This wasn’t going to be easy and he considered keeping his mouth shut, but that wouldn’t be fair they deserved to know. He wondered if Ignis and Gladio would react as calmly and cool as Noctis did.

Ignis cleared his throat, catching the lost blonde’s attention. “So Prompto, since the Regalia wouldn’t have been fixed yet, what kind of car did you use to get here?”.

_Ah, transport back, right… he never thought about that._

“Ah well, you see, I didn’t… um… well, I didn’t use a car.”

Ignis frowned. “Don’t tell me you walked all the way here”.

“No, no, of course not. I went to the nearest garage but they didn’t have any cars available so I had to um… a nice lady let me use one of her husband’s bike.”

Ignis raised his eyebrow, “A bike? As in a bicycle or- “

“What?! No Iggy, it was a motorcycle”.

Now it was Noctis turn to raise an eyebrow, “you know how to ride a motorcycle?”

“Uh yeah, I got my licence a few years ago. Ha ha, never actually brought a bike though” he chuckled.

“How the hell we all suppose to get back on ONE bike?” Gladio asked, pointing out the blatantly obvious problem – that getting back was going to be difficult.

In a swift movement performed countless times before Ignis flicked his wrist up to his eyes, glad his watch was still working, and checked the time. “Well it is early morning now, most people should be awake, maybe we should try phoning Cindy to see if she’ll pick us up”.

“Good plan Iggy, you got a signal in this dump?” Gladio questioned.

“Yes, it is weak but it’s still there and unlike some people”, he gave Noctis a pointed look, “I charged my phone earlier last night so if you’ll excuse I’m going to go make a phone call”.

Ignis wondered from the group to find some silence for the call, leaving the other three alone, who weren’t quite sure what to do while they waited. Until Prompto suddenly jerked upwards, his head snapping up, his eyes wide.

“Aw shit dude the bike!”

“Woah Prom calm down, what about it?” Noctis asked.

Prompto decided to explain his point by motioning with his arms – pointing them in various directions and gesturing to nothing, “I can’t just leave it here Noct, it belonged to Andrea’s late husband, I can’t just abandon it here, it should go back to her. Can’t believe I almost forgot”, his speech was quick and ended with a huff of annoyance at himself.

“No need for the shouting Prompto, you didn’t forget that’s the important thing ya got plenty of time to get it back to her” reasoned Gladio, trying to calm the other man down, there was no need to get into a fuss over this.

“Yeah, yeah you’re right big guy. You guys get a lift from Cindy, I’m gonna go ride back to the garage and return the bike.”

“Alright I’ll go tell Iggy, we’ll see you at the hotel Prompto”. Gladio gave a small wave before following where Ignis had went previously.

“See ya big guy” Prompto called after him, and then he faced Noctis “See ya at the hotel Noct, tell Cindy I said hi”.

He flashed a smile and whirled towards the direction of the exit, now he only hoped that he could remember how to-

A strong grip on his arm halted him from going any further. He turned back around to see Noct with his arm shaking as he kept his hold on him, tight, and his bangs covering his eyes, meaning it was impossible to tell his expression.

“Noct-?”

“I’m coming with you”

“Huh?”

“I said: I’m coming with you”

Prompto laughed, “I heard ya buddy, what I meant was why would you want to? We’re all gonna meet at the hotel anyway so- “.

“Prompto”.

That one word stopped him from saying anything else. Even with his hair over his eyes Prompto could see that his friend was distraught by the idea of him going without him – it was a big reaction to such a small separation. Then it hit him. _He thinks I’m going to leave him, that I’m not coming back._

“Noct”. He forced Noctis’ hand off him and placed his own on either side of his head, lifting the prince’s head up – at least he wasn’t crying, “I promise you I’m going to come back to the hotel” he comforted.

“I know that” Noctis grumbled “I know you wouldn’t lie to me, I just want to come with its not that big of a deal”.

Despite the words it obviously was a big deal otherwise it wouldn’t have bothered him so much.

“Alright dude, you can come. It’s not like I wouldn’t want you to I just didn’t think you would want to ride on the back of the bike”.

Noctis pulled away from him, grumbling “I’ll be fine it’s just a bike”.

He was not fine.

At the start everything was ok– they walked to the bike with a casual conversation, a smile on both faces – until they actually got on the bloody thing. Prompto had insisted that Noctis be the one to wear the helmet as he had never ridden one before, “just for safety dude, I don’t want to get hanged for letting the prince bang his head”.

“That wouldn’t happen and you know it”.

“Still better to be safe than sorry”

“What about you?”

He shrugged “I was fine on the way here, I’ll be fine on the way back”.

And that was that. Prompto helped him put the helmet on then got on the back, gesturing for him to climb behind him and, carefully, Noctis did. As soon as Prompto started the bike, Noctis felt way too unbalanced for his liking and flung his arms around the blonde’s back – that got him a laugh at his own expense.  When the bike started it only got worse. The road was bumpy, forcing him to lift off the bike and no matter what Prompto said earlier about the helmet and his safety, he did _not_ feel any safer with the damn thing. With each bump on the road, the tighter his hold was on Prompto, he buried his covered head as close to the blonde as the bulky helmet would let him.

Prompto was warm, really warm considering the early chill to the air surrounding them – he wasn’t even wearing a jacket and if Noctis concentrated hard enough and if the fear of immediate death wasn’t constantly on his mind, he would’ve been able to appreciate this more. He tried focusing more on Prompto and less on the nerve racking, uncomfortable ride. This close to him, Noctis could not only feel the heat radiating off him but also smell the unique scent of his best friend that he recognised from years of sleepovers and hugs – a kind of outdoorsy smell, something fresh with a distinct scent of gunpowder behind it, it was a good smell, it suited him. On top of that, with his body so closely pressed to the other’s, he discovered that Prompto must just generally be a really comfy person because just like when he gave him a piggyback earlier, ignoring everything else, Noctis could easily take a nap right now. If the fear of falling didn’t keep him alert. He must’ve been completely lost in his thoughts as he didn’t notice the bike stopping until Prompto spoke up.

“You still awake back there, dude? We’re here”.

With a steady hand, Prompto helped him off the bike and Noctis removed the helmet, only to have Prompto point and laugh at his head.

“Oh, haha, nice hair dude, love the style”. He gave him a thumbs ups.

Noctis saw his reflection in one of the motorcycle’s mirrors: his hair was sticking up in places it shouldn’t physically be able to and his usual style was no where to be seen – hidden in the mess that was similar to a bird’s nest. Still, that didn’t mean Prompto had any right to mock him and it _definitely_ didn’t mean Noctis’ pride would let him just take a hit like that without a retort.

“Says the guy with a chocobutt for a hair style”.

“HEY!” Prompto yelled in offence, shoving the prince to the side. A chorus of giggles followed.

Once both had calmed down they proceeded to the entrance of the garage. Prompto’s mind went back to when he was first here. He was anything but calm, his voice was panicked and desperate yet despite the time of day and the performance of distress the lady had only replied in a kind, level tone like a mother comforting a small child. She was even nice enough to give him the bike when there were no cars, not everyone would’ve done that especially not for an idiot turning up in the middle of the night banging on their doors.

“You ok there, Prom?”

Startled out of his thoughts Prompto turned to see Noctis looking at him in almost an analysing way. “Yeah, I’m good, just thinking that’s all”.

Noctis snorted, “pfft, try not to hurt yourself”.

“OI! RUDE”.

More laughter, gods he had missed that laugh. It was too bad that Noctis didn’t laugh more often, when he did it was usually just a little chuckle but sometimes, if you were lucky, he would let out a full, loud laugh, snorting part way through it when trying to get his breath back. Noctis’ chuckles were nice but _those_ laughs Prompto loved.

Gently parking the bike beside him Prompto knocked on the door.

“Andrea?”

“Prompto? What are you doing here?”. A small pause as her eyes found Noctis. “…and why the bloody hell is the prince with you?”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those who actually LIKE reading this shit and actually WAIT for me to update i apologise for the late update i did explain why last chapter but stilllll no excuse honestly i just got stuck like halfway through and had to wait for another day to finish  
> anyway tanks for reading sorry for any mistakes
> 
> leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind- i always reply) or come chat to meh  
> have a great day/night
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	17. The truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis and Prompto visit Andrea   
> Prompto has got some information he must tell Ignis and Gladio

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy   
> (hope it aint shit)

 Her eyes were wide; inspecting every inch of his body. To be fair he probably looked like shit, amidst of all the chaos he kinda forgot to clean himself up everyone else probably did too, it’s not like they’ve had a chance to stop and take a break. Prompto decided to pierce the kind of awkward silence and stares.

“Um, hi again” he pointed to Noctis “he is one of the friends I mentioned, remember? When you gave me the bike?”

Andrea nodded in understanding, her previous question of why the prince was at her doorstep answered “ah yes these mysterious friends you needed to help, one of them weirdly being the flipping prince of Lucis! – that was one detail you definitely didn’t tell me.”

“Ah yeah, guess I didn’t, I was in a bit of a rush”, he sheepishly replied.

“Yes, I could tell”, she cleared her throat and flickered her curious gaze to Noctis, “anyway, where are my manners? Nice to meet you, your highness”.

Although it was a little tense at the start with him being talked about like he wasn’t there while Prompto tried to explain his presence, Noctis liked this lady. He supposed the fact that she helped Prompto, and in turn himself, meant that he had already great respect for the woman, now actually meeting her he could see why Prompto was so eager to return the bike – to make her happy, she deserved it. The woman was short, with shoulder length brown hair that had some silver streaks amongst it, in her late 50’s Noctis would guess – maybe older. Her tone was like a mother’s, firm yet kind, which meant she most likely had kids maybe even grandkids. _At least she didn’t bow_.

“Nice to meet you too, oh and Noctis is fine”.

“Alright, Noctis it is. So Prompto I’m guessing your vague journey of helping your friends was a success then?”

“Yeah, thanks to you and your bike, ah which is why I’m here”

The lady crossed he arms, lifting her eyebrow, “oh? You’re only here because of the bike? You didn’t just come to see me then?” she teased.

And so, the rambling commenced, Prompto desperately trying to explain himself. “Ah! Wait! No! that came out wrong, let me explain - “.

Andrea laughed. “Relax Prompto I’m joking, now what about the bike? I told you not to worry if you’ve hurt her.”

“Actually, I’ve come to return it. I’m pretty sure it’s in the same condition it was in before, maybe a little bit dirty, but no scratches I promise!”.

With a step to his left, huddling himself beside Noctis, Prompto let Andrea see the bike that was still propped up against the wall. He quickly scanned it, looking for any signs of damage but as far as he could tell the bike was in good condition like he had said. Good, he would’ve hated to return it to her in a bad cond-

“Keep it”.

Prompto snapped his head up, _huh?_ “I -I can’t do that”.

Andrea’s sight never left the bike. “I believe when I gave you the bike Prompto, I never asked for it back, you having it was a permanent thing”.

“Well, I -I thought tha- um I just… I thought you’d want it back since it was your husbands and everything, I don’t have a place to store it anyway – it -it would just get ruined”.

She walked up to Prompto, her being at least a head shorter meant she had to look up, and grabbed his hand with her own.

“Prompto”, she was looking right at him, her voice had the same stubborn edge from when she ‘convinced’ him to take the bike. “I want you to keep the bike. As for where to keep it, you can store it here then you can come use it anytime”. She gave his hand a final squeeze then took a step back. “At least until you get a place of your own where you can store it safely”, she chuckled.

“I -I don’t, um”. Prompto was at a lost for words, what did he do to earn such kindness from this lady? Was she like this with everyone? How the hell would he repay her?

“Now, hurry along, this old lady has got a garage to run”.

Before thinking about it, Prompto had stepped closer to Andrea once more and hugged her. “I don’t know how to repay you for… all of this”, he whispered. “Thank you”.

Luckily, she returned the hug with just as much enthusiasm, “No need to repay me boy, it was my pleasure helping you, and technically you’re doing me a favour by using that bike – you’re honouring my husband’s memory, he would’ve like you, you two are quite similar I saw that from the moment you came to my doorstep, which is why I couldn’t have found a better owner for the old girl”. She released him from her arms, “you better use the bike though, or else” she joked, lightly slapping his arm in a mock threat.

Prompto laughed, glad she had changed the mood to less serious, embarrassingly, he was starting to get emotional by her words.

She must’ve been lonely here, he hadn’t seen or heard one other person here, she was such a good person she didn’t deserve to be left on her. Prompto knew loneliness all too well and how painful it is which is why he vowed right then and there to visit as frequently as he could – not just for the bike, maybe Noct would join him too.

“Don’t just stand there boy, give the old lady a hug”.

Prompto’s laughing continued when he saw the bewildered look on his friend’s face as he was drawn into a hug and seeing him slowly returned it, wrapping his arms gingerly around the woman’s back.

Andrea let him go and tapped him shoulder, “Good to see that you are alright, Prompto didn’t give me many details but whatever problem you were trapped in I’m glad he got you out ok.”

Still a little taken back from the sudden attention, Noctis shuffled his feet and replied, “Uh thank you and I guess I should thank you for helping him”.

“It’s no problem dear boy, I didn’t do that much”.

A farewell was voiced while the two boys called their Chocobos so that they could start their journey back.

“Don’t be a stranger boy, I still want an explanation of this whole thing one of these day”, Andrea yelled.

On top of his Chocobo, Prompto shouted back “Yes mommmm!”, his voice riddled with sarcasm.

Seeing the two yellow birds wander away, Andrea gave a final wave before moving the bike towards the garage. _The prince of Lucis huh? Wow what a fucking day… and it’s not even eight._

The ride to the hotel was fairly quick. Approaching the building they both dismounted their Chocobos, bid them farewell and Noctis made his way to the entrance whereas Prompto paused. Realising the blonde wasn’t following, Noctis stopped too and walked back to him.

“Prom? Prom, what’s wrong?”.

“I… What do I say to them?”.

_Oh, ohhhh._

He placed his hand on the troubled man’s shoulder, “hey, it’s going to be ok. You can tell them as much or as little as you want – they won’t react any differently than I did, they’re your friends Prom”.

“But I- what if…”

He didn’t continue. He couldn’t.

The prince pulled the other man into a hug, his arms wrapped around his shoulders and he felt Prompto’s hands grip the back of his shirt.

“Take as much time as you need Prompto, I’ll be there with you. You don’t have to tell them.”

A firm head shake, “No, I have to tell them – I can’t just lie to them, they don’t deserve that”.

Noctis pulled back. “Ok, if you’re sure. You ready?”.

“Yeah, let’s go”.

When they entered the hotel, they were intercepted by the receptionist who thanked them for all of their effort last night, both had waved off the thanks with ‘no problem’ and ‘they were happy to help’, they smoothly escaped from the man before he would start inquiring about their whereabouts after they had helped.

The walk up the stairs was slow, purposely so, Noctis leading the way - not being able to go too fast so that Prompto could keep up with his heavy, hesitant steps. Reaching the door, Noctis took one last glance at his friend who was blankly concentrated on the door until he noticed he was being watched and turned his head towards him. He gave Noct a small smile and nod. He was ready. Noctis felt like he should say something supportive or helpful, he was never good with speeches and he didn’t think Prompto needed one anyway, he had complete faith in him and he hoped the blonde knew that, instead of opening his mouth to speak he twitch his lips up into a small smile and opened door.

Both of the men inside were cleaner than before they had obviously showered while waiting for them. Ignis had suggested they both take one as well while Gladio just jested about them taking their damn time. The shower offer was rejected and Gladio’s comment was laughed off with a “shut up big guy, we weren’t that long”. Then everything went silent and Prompto spoke up.

“I have to -to tell you guys something, well actually a lot of somethings, about…well, ahem, about everything that happened back there”.

Before he could continue, Gladio spoke up. “Come on, let’s sit down first – we’re all tired plus, I gotta feeling we’re gonna need to for all this.”

The room had two single beds, Noctis and Prompto sat on one while Ignis and Gladio sat on the other – all four could now face each other and rest their aching bones simultaneously.

It was difficult to find the words, however somehow Prompto began his story at the beginning about how he was raised in that place, he was vague making sure to leave out details of how he struggled and what they did to him and his inner conflict going on inside him happening right now, they didn’t need to know that but he gathered that they figured out that place wasn’t the nicest to grow up in. He inputted that he escaped and a family took him in. Then he returned his trail of explanation to the facility and what he was. He didn’t say how or what they did to him, to be honest he couldn’t completely remember himself, he only said the key points: that he wasn’t born normally and he wasn’t kidnapped or taken from his family to grow up in the facility, no, he was born there and with everything he had discovered one thing was tragically clear – he wasn’t human. He was an MT.

That was it. He had said everything that was needed to be said. He hadn’t cried, he hadn’t wavered in his speech – gods know how.

The silent response told him everything. They hated him, they saw him as he was – a freak, maybe he should just leave, save them the trouble of kicking him out. Yet he stayed there, his eyes not leaving the floor, this was his punishment for being what he was – to suffer through the silence and eventually get through the oncoming insults and shouts of disgust all directed at him.

Someone cleared their throat, Gladio spoke up.

“Jeez Prompto I’m sorry you had to go through that just to save our sorry asses”

“Yes Prompto, we’re both sorry for all the trouble we’ve caused you. I imagine discovering all that while wondering around that place by yourself must’ve been awful”, Ignis added. “we are truly, deeply sorry”.

He risked a look up at the two. There was no fear or hate, just a small smile with some guilt in their eyes – similar to Noctis’ reaction. He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know how to feel – he had expected the worse, and now he was given a reaction that he didn’t even consider to be a possibility.

“I…you guys really don’t need to apologise, you – you didn’t do anything”.

“Yeah we weren’t much help either” Noctis grumbled beside him.

Before Prompto could argue, Ignis cut in. “Yes, well I think that’s enough today if anymore needs to be said we can discuss it after we have rested”. He looked at the two opposite him. “And after you two have cleaned yourself up, Prompto will you need help tending to your wounds?”.

“Nah, I got it Iggy, thanks”.

“Very well”.

“Go on then you two, get outta here so me and Iggy can sleep a little while longer”, Gladio said.

Retiring to their own room, Noctis had told Prompto to shower first even with the other insisting he didn’t mind going second. All arguments about it were ceased when Noctis literally pushed Prompto into the bathroom and closed the door.

“WOW DUDE, REALLY?!”.

Huffing at the non-existent reply Prompto locked the bathroom door, shed his clothes, turn on the shower to a nice, relaxing, warm temperature. Now engulfed in flowing hot water he started to scrub at the surprisingly small amount of dirt on his body and then took extra care in leaning out his small wounds and scratches with water. He had to do it all one handed, careful to keep his injured hand, that still had the rag wrapped around it, out of the way – he would treat it later with the medical supplies after Noctis had gone to bed, it shouldn’t need a potion it would only be a waste.

Usually in the shower Prompto would let his thoughts wander, but he didn’t want them to, not this time, not when he knew what was hiding in his head, what he was pushing to the farthest parts of his mind – he didn’t need those thoughts, he didn’t want them. So, he finished quicker than he usually would and stepped out of the shower, quickly realising that he didn’t get a chance to grab any clean clothes with Noctis’ constant pushing. He didn’t really want to walk out in a towel, however he might not have a choice.

“Hey Noct! NOCT ARE YOU STILL AWAKE?!”

“…”

Silence.

Guess not.

With no other choice, Prompto thoroughly dried himself off then he wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out.

Inside the bedroom Prompto saw his friend groggily sitting up, rubbing at his eyes – clearly just woken up.

“Ugh, Prom? what did you- “

“Ah sorry dude, did I wake you up? I was just asking for you to grab my clothes so that I could, um”.

Prompto stopped talking when he realised that Noctis was just sitting there, staring at him, his eyes much wider and awake than before and his lips slightly parted, Prompto wasn’t sure he was even listening to him. He suddenly felt very self-conscious especially when he remembered that one: he was only wearing a towel – not a very big one either, and two: Noctis had never seen him this naked before – Prompto had never let him.

He was blushing, he could feel it. “Um, you gonna just keep staring at me buddy or you gonna go shower?”, he joked, trying to get rid of the sudden weird atmosphere. And to try to get Noctis to stop openly staring at him.

Noctis blinked as if to break himself from a trance, then his face turned a deep shade of red. “Yeah -  Yeah, I’m – I’m going.”

He quickly shuffled from his place on the bed past Prompto, looking at the floor all the way there.

As soon as Prompto heard the door closed, he let out a shaky breath and got dressed in a record time. He tried to calm himself down and got his phone out as a distraction while laying on the bed – waiting for Noctis to finish.

While Prompto had succeeded in forgetting or at least being temporarily distracted from the awkward moment earlier, Noctis was still struggling through it his thoughts not shutting up. He hadn’t gotten in the shower instead he sat on the bathroom floor, his head in his hands.

_What was that? What was that? What was I doing? What’s wrong with me? Why did I -?_

Ok, ok, breath, relax. It wasn’t that big of a deal. He just wasn’t use to seeing Prompto so…unclothed. Yeah, yeah that was it – it was just surprise, he was just surprised, that’s all.

Convinced by this, Noctis got up from his sorry position on the floor and turned the shower on.

_Yeah, that’s all it was._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH WHAT WAS THAT? IDK IM JUST THE AUTHOR
> 
> big thanks to all who have shown support through comments and kudos or just reading the fic - i love u allllll  
> i tried not to rush but at the same time i didnt want to waste a chapter on the boring stuff with nothing new happening
> 
> Thanks for reading - i hope it werent too bad  
> sorry for any mistakes  
> Have a good day/night
> 
> this is where i say: leave a comment if ya wish (dont matter wat it about) or come chat to meh on tumblr (if da links works that is - ive never actually tested it)
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	18. Injuries and death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two boys have a moment alone.  
> The nightmare is not over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy ;)

 

 By the time Noctis had exited the bathroom Prompto’s distraction had worked and he was deeply invested into his game. He didn’t look towards the prince until he had settled into his own bed however once he did what happened earlier came flooding back to the front of his mind and he couldn’t shake it. He wasn’t tired, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep yet no matter how much his body required it, especially with his thoughts being this loud.

Noctis hadn’t said anything, he had simply just sat on his own bed and pulled out his phone. Prompto hoped he wasn’t feeling the tension as well, he didn’t want it to hang in the air between them so, just in case the prince was feeling uncomfortable, he begun distraction number two which, to be honest, was very similar to his first one.

“Noct, you wanna play kings knight with me?”, Prompto asked raising his phone in the air and wriggling it around in front of Noctis’ face – that definitely got his attention.

Noctis tried looking annoyed at his friend’s antics, but a smile broke through his face that turned into a small chuckle, “Cut it out Prom”, he laughed, “Come on dude, I’ll play a game if you stop swinging that thing in – “. 

He stopped talking and his face fell. He was no longer laughing and his fake serious expression turned into a real one, which worried the blonde.

“Noct?”

“Prom… your hand”

How the hell didn’t he notice before? Prompto’s hand, the one he used to grab the sword so it wouldn’t brutally slice him open, poorly bandaged with a piece of cloth from Prompto’s shirt – it must hurt like hell, Gods.

“Oh yeah, I- “

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Noctis felt anger boil inside of him, at himself for not seeing the injury and for not remembering that it happened – how could he have forgotten his friend was badly wounded, and at Prompto for not telling him so he could treat it for him.

“Huh?! Well…I – its not that big of a deal, I was gonna treat and dress it once you had gone to bed. It’s pretty gruesome looking and I didn’t wanna bother you with- “

“You idiot”, Noctis mumbled, stopping his whole explanation.

Not another word was said. Noctis darted from his bed to his bag, which Ignis had kindly brought up from reception while they were at the garage, and searched for the first aid kit that Ignis always insisted on them carrying – right now, Noctis was grateful for it. Finally finding it he walked back to Prompto and sat beside him.

“Noct, you really don’t need to- “

“Give me your hand Prompto”

Not wanting to cause an argument Prompto wordlessly placed the back of his injured hand onto Noctis’ open palm. Gently, Noctis undid the dirty cloth and tossed it to the side. Prompto wasn’t wrong when he said it looked gruesome, the slice ran diagonally from one side of his palm to the other, it was deep but the blood had long stop running from it instead dried blood surrounded it – at least it didn’t look infected.

For a small amount of time Noctis sat there, staring silently at Prompto’s wounded hand then, wordlessly, he got up and went to the bathroom where he grabbed a cloth and dampened it. He walked back to the bed, sat down and softly grabbed the hand once more and cleaned the wound – dabbing at it delicately.  When he was satisfied he got out the disinfectant and, as carefully as he could, applied it to the wound. Despite his best attempts to be gentle Prompto still hissed as the ointment hit his skin, Noctis murmured an apology before continuing. Once the wound had been completely covered Noctis gathered a bandage and wrapped it around the hand, firmly but not too tight, he tied a knot and packed the unused stuff back in the first aid box. After he was done he expected the silence to be broken but they both just sat there, neither making an attempt to start a conversation.

He didn’t know why he did it, it was an unconscious move, but Noctis took hold of Prompto’s injured hand again and before the blonde could question him, he bent down and lightly kissed it. He felt Prompto tense and his own cheeks heat up when he had realised what he had just done. He let go of Prompto’s hand and sat back up, not looking at the blonde.

“Um, your hand should – should be fine now, just…just next time tell me, yeah?”

“Yeah, right, no problem”.

Somehow, Noctis found the confidence to lift his head back up and look at Prompto. The blonde was blushing, it was only light whereas his face felt on fire, and purposely avoiding his gaze. _Shit, I fucked up, I fucked up. What did I just do? Why did I do that? What was I thinking?_

Prompto cleared his throat, “soooo, about that game?”

Prompto had spoken in his usual jokey tone, changing subject and making some noise to stop the unpleasant silence, he was making things go back to normal -  Noctis was hugely grateful for that.

Ungracefully, Noctis scrambled back to his own bed, “one game, then sleep”.

“Whatever you say, your sleepyness!”

That one game quickly became four (Noctis demanding a best of three once he lost the first two and then them both ending with two wins each and too tired to play again for the decider) and that had drained all their energy so as soon as they bid each other goodnight they both fell asleep almost instantaneously.

 

Noctis felt cold, _really_ cold, he couldn’t understand why he was in a warm comfy bed in a heated hotel… wasn’t he? Opening his eyes Noctis saw he was no longer in his bed nor in his hotel room, he was in a large space surrounded in darkness where the only thing he could see was a small light in front of him. With no idea where he was and nothing else to do, he strode towards it.

As he got closer, the light got bigger until he was right in front of it. He reached out his hand to touch it however it went straight through. Noctis pulled his hand back with a gasp, surprised, then with caution he reached out his hand once more and let it go through the light and with it, the rest of his body followed.

For a moment he only saw white, then it started to form into more familiar surroundings. _Wait, this is…_

Lucis?

In front of him stood his home, the buildings now destroyed, wreckage filling the streets and no people walking around.

Wait, wait, he recognised this scene, it was just like his nightmare from a few nights ago. So that confirmed he was dreaming but was he really going to have to have the same nightmare again? Even though this time he knew what he would see, Noctis didn’t want to experience it again, he didn’t want to see them _dead_ again.

He tried waking himself up; pinching himself didn’t work and he couldn’t will himself to jolt awake. He was trapped and he guessed, like last time, the only way he was gonna wake up was to walk to the end. _You can do this, just…don’t look at their faces._ He stepped forward.

The first bodies were in the exact same place in the exact same positions and even though he said he wouldn’t, he looked at their faces. His dad lay there, his eyes shut and his body impaled by a sword stabbed through his heart. Luna was beside him, her white dress drenched in red, a bullet wound between her eyes, her eyes open – clouded, with no life. Sadness, that was all Noctis felt, just like the first time but he didn’t cry, he walked away.

Following where the dream wanted him to go, Noctis found himself on the same dark, narrow road from the first time and that’s when he saw them. Gladio and Ignis, back to back, a spear penetrated through both of them – a puddle of blood surrounding them. Multiple scratches, open wounds and bruises scattered their bodies, Ignis’ glasses smashed beside him. Noctis was starting to feel like sadness was all he had ever felt – it filled his body so he could feel nothing else, his mind thinking of nothing other than their faces. His legs trembled yet he continued forwards.

He knew what was next.

The path had led him to the citadel, the magnificent structure now in bits with the door smashed open and none of the walls fully whole. Dream or not, Noctis took wary steps making sure he didn’t trip and nothing would fall on him. Then he saw him.

He didn’t want to look, yet it felt like he was forced to, like his mind wanted him to suffer in this dreamland. Prompto lay on his back, one hand outstretched holding his gun, the other on his stomach covering a deep wound. His eyes were closed yet his face held suffering – it showed Noctis that he was in a lot of pain when he died and that he died slowly – most likely from blood loss. Noctis couldn’t step any closer to him, he couldn’t see it up close, he tried to turn around and walk away until he heard a strangled cough. His eyes darted back to the blonde whose chest was now moving in a small fit of coughs.

“PROMPTO!”

Noctis rushed across the room, all reasonable thoughts of it all just being a dream instantly forgotten, and knelt at his best friend’s side, covering the hand over his wound and slowly lifting his head by cuffing his cheek.

“Prom, Prompto can you hear me?”

Another cough. “Noct?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me buddy, come on stay with me, you’re gonna be alright”. Noctis realised he was crying when he felt his tears sliding down his cheek. “Don’t leave me Prom, please”.

A small, sad smile showed on the blonde’s lips and he reached up to tenderly swipe away Noctis’ tears, “Sorry buddy but I don’t think I have a ch- _cough –_ choice”.

“No, no Prom, please, please”

Prompto’s eyes were closing. “Noct…why didn’t you save us…why didn’t you save…me?”

Prompto’s eyes closed, his hand slip from Noctis face and his chest stopped moving. He stopped breathing.

Noctis eyed widened. “No…Prompto”, he begged as he grabbed Prompto’s fallen hand and placed it upon his cheek, like the blonde had done so before, leaning into the fading warmth. “Prompto…”

Noctis let out a loud broken cry, his shriek echoing around the Citadel. Tears heavily flowed now and his despair filled yell didn’t yield, eventually his voice became breathless croaks and sobs.

He was gone, he was gone and Noctis couldn’t stop it, he had lost him and it was all his own fault.

He heard footsteps approach, he didn’t turn his head away from his blonde. He felt the cold end of a gun on the side of his head, he didn’t care. He heard the voice of a man he despised, he didn’t move. “Goodbye, your majesty”, he didn’t fight back.

The gun fired.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOOOOOO PROMPTOOOOOO  
> IM SORRY FOR THE FEELS I DIDNT PLAN THIS IT JUST HAPPENED  
> WOAH ANOTHER CHAPTER???!! NOOO WAYYY!!!
> 
> Thats right im back already with my shitty writing that some people like :D
> 
> thank u to everyone who reads, leaves a kudos or comments on this it means A LOT
> 
> Ya probably kno by now but: leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind- i always reply) or come chat to meh on tumblr (if da links works that is - ive never actually tested it)
> 
> Have a good day/ night ma peeps
> 
> LEXAX OUT
> 
>  
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	19. After the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto, Prompto, PROMPTO!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy ;)

 

Noctis sat up in a cold sweat, shaking violently, involuntarily realising broken whimpers and loud sobs. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear. _Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead._ He felt hands on his shoulder. _Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead._ The hands moved to his face _._ _Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead._ His head was forced up to look into the eyes of another. _Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead, Prompto is dead._ The figure’s face was blurred by tears. _Prompto, Prompto, Prompto._ A voice reached his ears, he recognised that voice, he recognised those eyes

“Noct? Noctis? Come on Noct, come back to me – it was just a dream, ok? Just a dream.”

Blue. Blue eyes…yet not quite blue - a shot of purple mixed in. Those eyes, no one else had eyes like that.

“…Prompto?”

Not possible, it wasn’t possible. Prompto was _dead,_ he died because Noctis wasn’t there for him, he didn’t save him.

“Yeah, it’s me. It’s ok Noct, take deep breaths – in and out. That’s it, you’re doing really well, everything is fine, you are safe, we are safe”.

In time Noctis senses woke up, his eyes realising reality. He was in bed, in the hotel like he was supposed to be like how he was just before he had closed his eyes with only one difference. Prompto sat on the side of bed facing him, frowning worriedly. His hands framing the sides of his face – his thumbs softly stroking up and down his cheeks, the movement soothed him and helped to calm his rapid heartbeat.

The nightmare was worse than what it had been the first time. He saw the same faces, the same deaths yet, for some reason, Prompto’s was different. The first time the blonde hadn’t woken up, Noctis hadn’t experience his death up close – both times he had broken down at the sight of seeing him dead. However, seeing his death happen, seeing the light leave his eyes, hearing his final words, that had hit Noctis much harder than the first time which was probably why it took him so long to wake up.

Neither of them spoke. Prompto continued stroking his thumbs down his face while he focused on his breathing.

When his breathing became steadier Noctis had enough control to reach across with a shaky hand and grip the front of the blonde’s shirt. His other hand moved to Prompto as well and he crushed the fabric in his fists and held on for dear life. Then he lightly tugged the shirt towards, too drained to do anything more but he didn’t need to, as soon as Prompto felt the slight tug he moved closer to him. Prompto dropped his hands from his face and wrapped them around his shoulders, one of his hands at the back of Noctis’ head. Noctis buried his head in his friend’s chest, he felt Prompto rest his chin on top of it and move side to side – rocking him, just like the first time except it felt longer, Noctis _needed_ longer.

“Was it the same nightmare?”

A nod: yes.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

A shake of the head: no.

“Ok, that’s fine we can stay like this as long as you want Noct. I’m not going anywhere”.

 

Minutes passed, maybe an hour, Prompto kept whispering small reassurances: “It’s ok”, “Everything’s fine”, “We’re safe”, “You’re so brave”, as he kept rocking gently. Gradually, Noctis removed his head from under Prompto’s chin, looking at his worried expression directed at him those big, beautiful eyes focusing all their attention on him – he got lost into those eyes.

The silence was broken, Prompto gave him a sad smile. “You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”.

A tiny croak left his lip when he tried to respond, he closed his mouth and forced the words out of his lips.

“It happened -happened again, the same dream like last time… except…”

Prompto patiently waited for Noctis to continue, waiting for him to say what he had to at whatever pace was comfortable for him, never interrupting, rubbing tender circles into his back and nodding his head in understanding.

“You… you weren’t dead. I ran as fast as I c-could… there- there was a lot of blood… I watched you… die”. The tears commenced again – flooding down his face. He kept seeing Prompto’s face over and over, lifeless…gone.

“No, no, hey it’s ok”. Prompto’s thumbs went back to wiping away Noctis’ tears. “Shh, shh, I’m right here Noct, we both are. We’re not at the citadel, I’m not hurt, I’m beside your side like I always will be”.

“I didn’t protect you Prom, you – you died because I failed. You could – could’ve died in that facility and I – I would’ve been useless”. Noctis kept looking into the other’s eyes, tears on show, emotion in his voice. “I near- nearly lost you”.

“Oh Noct…”

Prompto threaded his hand through the prince’s hair, the other still wiping away his tears. Noctis was bearing his heart to him, showing all of his vulnerable thoughts and feelings that were usually locked behind very strong doors, concealed from the world. The man before him was falling apart and Prompto felt guilty, feeling like he should be doing more for him, after all he had been through, after all that has happened.

If Noctis needed a shoulder to cry on.

Then Prompto would always be there for him.

If Noctis was going to be this honest and open about his fears.

Then Prompto was going to do everything to quell them.

Prompto stopped wiping away the tears, the task was pointless anyway since they just kept coming, and gripped Noctis jaw firmly, looking straight into those blue eyes.

“Now, you listen here Noctis Lucis Caelum”. Noctis eyes widened, not expecting the use of his full name – good, Prompto had his attention. “Remember what I said the first night? That you are the strongest, bravest, most kind-hearted person I have ever met? I meant all of those words every, single, one. If I was in danger, I know you would do anything to help me because that’s the kind of person you are. You don’t give up, you fight for your friends and even though we’re supposed to protect you, you wouldn’t hesitate to risk your life for our own. So, even in a dream, if I was badly injured or even dead it would never be because you didn’t try to protect me, to save me. It would never be your fault and I would _never_ blame you.”

It appeared as though he had shocked Noctis into silence for the prince was still staring at him, mouth opening and closing to try to produce sound from his unprocessed thoughts. The most important part though: he had stopped crying.

Prompto hands moved again to swipe away the remaining tears and when they were removed altogether, he smiled at him, “and don’t you forget that”.

“I- I…Prom”

“Plussss I wouldn’t need your lazy ass saving me, have you seen my amazing aiming skills – I ain’t no damsel in distress”.

That seemed to fix Noctis confused mind as he finally closed his mouth and snorted at his words.

“Damsel in distress, huh?”

They laughed together. They hadn’t laughed this freely in ages, it sounded good - to both of them. Laughter; free of sadness or guilt, it wasn’t forced, it wasn’t fake, it was two friends joking around like they have always, like they always will.

Amidst their laughter Noctis got cut off by a yawn, the whole night had drained energy he hadn’t had to start with.

“Uh oh, I think sleeping beauty needs to go to sleep”, Prompto joked.

“Shut up”, Noctis grumbled back although a yawn cut through the sentence.

“Seriously though dude we should sleep, it’s been a long night and Iggy will kill us if he finds us collapsing all over the place”.

“Sleeping in the day… this is going to completely mess up my sleep schedule”.

“Shut up dude! You don’t have a sleep schedule, you sleep whenever and wherever you can”.

Noctis grinned tiredly at him, “you’ve got me there”.

Prompto grinned back and stood making his way back to his own bed…until:

“Wait”.

The blonde turned back to see Noctis hanging his head down, his fingers on sheets suddenly becoming very interesting. Concerned about the sudden change in Noctis’ demeanour, he stepped back to the bed and crouched beside it. “Something wrong buddy?”.

Noctis visibly stiffened and started to fiddle with the sheets under his hands. “I, I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep”, he explained, his head lifting to meet Prompto’s, “well, at least…not on my own”.

Those last few words were barely above a whisper, Prompto had to lean in to catch them all. “You want me to sleep with you?”

Embarrassed, Noctis darted his head to the side away from the blonde, “only – only if you want to”, he muttered.

“Alright”.

His head snapped back up, surprised Prompto agreed. “Really?”.

“Yeah dude, it will be just like a sleepover”, he grinned and stood up, “Budge along Noct, ya gonna have to make room – it’s only single bed”.

Without breaking eye contact, he shuffled to the edge of the bed and watched as Prompto climbed into it. As soon as he was settled on his side, Prompto opened his arms wide towards him.

“What?”

“You’re not gonna be very comfortable stuck on the edge like that Noct, come here”.

“You…want us to cuddle?”.

Prompto’s arms lowered a little, still leaving a big enough gap for him, a small frown marked into his face and… was that a flash of disappointment in his eyes? “well… I mean…we don’t have to. You know what, dumb idea, forget it- “.

There was no warning, Noctis rushed into his arms – the prince’s own clinging onto the front of his shirt – dipping under Prompto’s chin like they had when he was comforting him earlier.

Caught off guard Prompto eventually copied Noctis’ movements and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Comfy?” he asked.

The prince let out a hum in agreement. Being in the blonde’s arms like this he felt…safe, secured – nothing bad was going to happen to him here, he was in his own little shell of comfort, protected from the world. And that was most likely why he found sleep so easily this time. Just before his conscious left him, Noctis felt a small, warm press on the top of his head.

“Goodnight, Noct”.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH THESE CHAPTERS R COMING FAST  
> IT SHORT BUT IT SWEET  
> im sorry if any of them sound rushed- it didnt feel like it to me when i was writing them but i could be wrong - im not releasing these quick on purpose i was just really in the mood to write  
> i wonder if anyone actually reads these notes :D
> 
> i really like writing about Noctis crying dont i ? im not doin it on purpose i swearrrr but to be fair that boy needed time to cry and let it out in that game and IM GONNA GIVE IT TO HIM WITH PROM THERE TO HELP HIM THROUGH IT
> 
> anyways sorry for any mistakes - i tried my best  
> leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind- i always reply) or come chat to meh on tumblr (if da links works that is - ive never actually tested it)
> 
> have a good night/day
> 
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)


	20. Afternoon sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fresh new start to the day... or the afternoon.  
> Back to the beach.  
> Prompto is hiding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy  
> sorry for any mistakes

 

The warmth from the night before was missing when Noctis awoke, he instantly missed it as he gradually stirred. A shuffle to his side revealed the said warmth exiting the bathroom in fresh clothes of his usual attire – the clothes from earlier most likely thrown away or tossed carelessly somewhere.

A bright mile was directed at his tired state. “Oh hey, You’re finally awake”.

“Uh huh, yep”, he winced at how croaky his voice sounded, his eyes felt sore from the previous outburst of tears and struggled to stay open, “what time is it?”.

“Around 3? I think. You can have more sleep if ya want dude, I don’t think we’ll be doing much today”.

Noctis would if he could, he wanted nothing more than to curl back into the confinements of the sheets and go back to a peaceful slumber, but since Prompto was dressed that meant that he wasn’t going to join him and without Prompto he wasn’t going to get any sleep no matter how long he stayed in bed.

There wasn’t really a choice, therefore Noctis staggered out of bed and headed to the bathroom. “I’m awake now, might as well get up”.

Surprised by Noctis’ rejection of the opportunity of more sleep Prompto stood there, stuck in place, as Noctis wandered past him and closed the bathroom door behind him. Well, that was…odd. It was no mystery to anyone that really knew him that Noctis could sleep anywhere at any time and would never pass up the offer of more sleep – for him to decline that offer was…not normal, it wasn’t Noctis. Prompto frowned, his eyes still trained on the bathroom door, those nightmares had affected the prince more than he thought. He sighed and left the bathroom door, using his phone again to occupy himself while he waited for his prince.

Both boys joined Gladio and Ignis in the hotel’s café and Noctis could truthfully say: he wasn’t ready for daylight. It was still early afternoon and the sun rays shined through the crystal-clear windows of the café, the shiny wooden furniture reflecting it into his eyes. He squinted, navigating to a seat beside Gladio, Prompto took the seat beside him.

“Good day’s rest, I hope?”, Ignis questioned.

Although it wasn’t intended, the question just irritated him, was it not visibly clear that he had definitely _not_ had a good rest or at least not enough of one. He didn’t have the energy to reply, the blonde to his left, however, obviously did.

“Yeah! It was great. I feel so much better and less achy”.

Ignis nodded his head with a small smile gracing his lips, “Well that’s good to hear. How are your injuries?”.

Even with the blinding light, Noctis could easily see where Ignis’ gaze was at; Prompto’s hand. He felt his stomach drop, the feeling of guilt and sadness filling it – Prompto shouldn’t have those injuries and the fact that he was to blame for it made him feel sick.

A hint of nervousness or uneasiness was present in Prompto’s voice, he tried shrugging off the concern, this wasn’t a topic he wanted to discuss in detail. “Ah, I’m all patched up now Iggy, I’m fine, they weren’t that bad anyway”.

_A lie,_ Noctis thought as he grabbed the menu to do something with his hands, he had only seen one of Prompto’s injuries and that one wasn’t just ‘not bad’ he hadn’t seen any other major ones but he wouldn’t be surprised if Prompto was hiding some from him. He made a mental note to ask Prompto about it later and be stubborn about it otherwise he would just dismiss his concern like he is now.

“Hmm very well”. Ignis was plainly not completely convinced, yet he dropped it and moved on. “Gladio and I have been talking and, if you two agree, we’ve decided that we should stay one more night in the hotel”.

Gladio? Agreeing to stay in a hotel instead of camping? Somehow, Noctis didn’t believe that, if Ignis had convinced the big guy however then he wasn’t going to complain. One problem with this idea was nagging Noctis’ mind, he had to ask.

“Can we afford it?”.

They were well enough off to stay a night or two maybe but money doesn’t last and if his maths was correct then they would be scraping up the coins to get enough to stay here another night. Plus, they needed that money to stock up on potions, their supply always seemed to vanish into thin air.

“Well, luckily for us, the receptionist from last night had told the manager of our assistance and we have been offered a free night in gratitude, they said it was the least they could do for us”, Ignis explained, “It would be rather rude to refuse”.

To his left he saw Prompto’s eyes beam in excitement and listened to his hopeful question, “Does that mean that we can hang around town again?! Doing whatever?!”.

“As long as it doesn’t involve anything that could make our injuries worse, then yes, I don’t see why not”.

Thrilled; Prompto let out a loud “Yes” not noticing or choosing not to notice the few glances he got because of it. Not that Noctis didn’t notice, he did, he just didn’t care not when his focus was on the bright, glowing smile on Prompto’s face, gods and those eyes were filled with life – every shade of blue and purple flickering in the sun’s golden rays which almost made up for the fact that its light was still glaring into his damn eyes. He groaned in annoyance.

“Still tired buddy? I did say you could sleep longer”.

“I’m fine, it’s just too bright”.

Gladio’s eyebrows shot so far up his head it almost reached his hairline, he and Ignis exchanged a confused look. “Princess not wanting to sleep more? That’s… unheard of”.

“I know, it surprised me too”. Prompto’s eyes narrowed and in an overly exaggerated suspicious voice he said, “Maybe he isn’t the _real_ Noct”.

“I am right here ya know”.

Despite his words, Noctis was ignored and the topic of conversation was changed to what they would all do with their free time, he had suggested sleep (as long as Prompto joined him) but that was brushed off, he might as well not have said it, instead the beach was brought up and decided on. Even though he and Prompto went there before the blonde looked just as thrilled about the revisit and Noctis supposed he wasn’t completely against the idea – any excuse to fish and he’ll take it even if he would have to face the sun’s harsh rays blinding him.

After they all had a light ‘breakfast’ they all went upstairs to their rooms to pack. Noctis changed into a pair of black swimming trunks with silver skulls and a plain black t- shirt while Prompto packed a bag for them both filled with sun cream, water bottles and towels. Once he was finish, he and Prompto swapped positions and after a few minutes the blonde emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of blue swimming trunks with two vertical yellow stripes on the sides and a grey short sleeved top.

“You ready?”

“Yeah dude, let’s go, this is gonna be great!”, Prompto replied eagerly, grabbing their bag before heading for the door.

“I can carry that, Prom”, Noctis yelled after him, following the rapid blonde out the door.

“I’ve got it! Now keep up slowpoke!”.

Shortly after reaching the beach, Prompto dumped the bag by Ignis and Gladio and ran towards the sea at full speed, Noctis had to warp after him just to keep up.

“WAIT UP PROM!”

“NUH UH! NO WAY! YOU SNOOZE YA LOSE!”

Prompto arrived at the water first and fell backwards onto it once he was far enough in and the water was deep enough, Noctis soon followed and proceeded to chuck a wave of glistening sea water on top of his best friend. Spluttering slightly, Prompto stood from the water and fixed Noctis a glare.

“What the hell Noct?”

He shrugged, not caring, “That’s for leaving me behind”.

The glare softened and Prompto struggled to hold off a smile, “Aw come on dude, you were right behind me”, he laughed, then he got his revenge by scooping his arms up causing a big sum of water to crash over the unsuspecting prince.

The water caused Noctis hair to stick up in odd angles, some of it sticking to his face which currently looked like the definition of annoyance. Prompto tried not to laugh, he really did, but with his friend looking like a cat caught in a storm he couldn’t help the loud sound erupting from his mouth, he felt tears start to prickle his eyes as he struggled to breath through it all. Noctis looked less than impressed by his reaction and returned the water attack at his friend some of it getting into Prompto’s open mouth mid laugh making him cough and splutter again. This resulted in a severe water fight where both parties were drenched by the end of it and looking far too pleased for themselves.

“I win”.

“What? No way Noct! I hit you last”

“But you got more wet than me”

“What!? No way dude!”

The debate had to stop as neither had the breath nor the energy to fight back. Pushing back his pride Prompto offered his hand out towards Noctis, “Truce?”.

Surprisingly, Noctis shook it, “Truce.”

Prompto smiled.

“But I totally won”.

Prompto frowned and watched Noctis exit the sea onto dry land. He sighed and let his lips form a small smirk, _what a childish bastard,_ he thought and he followed him out of the sea onto the soft, warm blanket of sand that felt like feather cushions under his feet.

They turned to see Gladio standing with Ignis by the bags who seemed to be in the middle of working with the bespectacled man to build a sandcastle, quite an impressive looking one at that. Noctis turned to Prompto, a question ready on his lips but stopped when he saw the other man remove his drench tank top, his back toward Noctis. Now, it was rare to see Prompto without a shirt on, in fact, earlier when he had come out of the shower was the first time Noctis had ever seen him shirtless and they had been friends for years, but that wasn’t what made him pause, no, what stopped him and made all thoughts or words fly out was that, he had been right. Prompto had been hiding. Covering the blonde’s back was a splatter of bruises and small cuts of all shapes and sizes, they must hurt – especially if they were touched. And Prompto hadn’t said a word. He watched Prompto quickly wrung out his shirt and then cautiously put in back on, his whole body tensing in pain. Noctis stormed to the blonde in determined steps, then, without a warning, grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, forcing Prompto to be dragged as he walked.

“Noct? H- Hey, what- what’s going on? what’s wrong? Dude?”

Silently, Noctis kept walking and dragging Prompto who, luckily, wasn’t fighting against him, to the far part of the beach where it was much quieter, he knew where he was going; the exact same spot Prompto had taken him too before – his quiet, little secret spot that was secluded enough that they shouldn’t be bothered by anyone. He dragged Prompto all the way to the crystallised, colourful wall and once he was trapped between it and Noctis himself, he let go of his wrist. Now released, Prompto rubbed his wrist, in all his rushing Noctis he may have gripped too tightly, and looked at him; his eyes were narrowed in harsh slits, his lips curved downwards, his brows furrowed, his whole expression screamed anger and frustration. His tone perfectly represented his countenance.

“What the hell Noct?! What is wrong with you?!”

The questions just angered him further. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! FIRST YOUR HAND, NOW THIS, WHAT ELSE ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME?”. He knew he shouldn’t have shouted, he knew he shouldn’t have been that loud but, right now, his emotions were all over the place.

He saw the blonde take as small step back, surprised and hurt, “W- What? Noct, what are you on about?”.

Not wanting to attract any attention, Noctis lowered his voice, “Take off your shirt”, he demanded firmly.

“What?!”. If Prompto was surprised earlier, he was near flabbergasted now. “Why- why would I- why would you- “

“Just do it”

Something in his expression must’ve convinced the blonde because after scanning the prince’s face for a few seconds, his curious eyes carefully checking every inch of it – analysing him, he heaved a heavy sigh and peeled off his still damp top. He was more careful this time, Noctis noticed, not to strain his injuries so that he produced no winces or sounds of pain – it wasn’t going to work, he saw it, he knew what he saw and he wasn’t letting this go.

Prompto flung his shirt to the ground and faced him with a scowl, “you happy now?”.

No, no he was not. “Turn around”.

“Noct, I really don’t think that- “.

“Turn around Prompto”.

Another sigh as Prompto slowly turned so his back was facing him. _Oh gods,_ it was must worst than he thought, _dammit how didn’t I notice it before when he came out of the shower, was I really that caught up in my own damn head._

Still turned and sounding irritated, Prompto asked, “You happy _now_?”

All confidence and authority left Noctis voice, leaving it sounding vulnerable and hurt, “Why? Why didn’t you say anything”?

Prompto must’ve noticed his change of tone as his own voice softened in sympathy, “It isn’t as bad as it looks Noct, I promise. I- I was gonna sort it out before we went to bed but… I forgot and then I – you had already helped me out with my hand so I-, I didn’t want to hold us up from going to the beach so I was going to treat it after we got back to the hotel I – I just didn’t want you to see”.

“Why?”, Noctis whispered.

Although his back was still toward him, Noctis could see Prompto hanging his head looking directly at the sand beneath their feet, “I just – I didn’t want to upset you. I- I kinda knew that -that you would feel guilty about it and think it was your fault, which it’s not by the way – not at all, so I just- I hid it.”

Well Prompto was certainly right about one thing; he did feel guilty, unbelievably so, not only were all the cuts, all the bruises caused because of his own stupid capture but also Prompto had hid all the pain, all the struggles just for his sake. All of it was for him and that made his heart fill with misery.

A few seconds past before he took a staggered step toward Prompto, who still hadn’t turned around, and reached out his hand to lightly touch the blonde’s damaged skin. Under his touch, Prompto shivered but said nothing and Noctis hoped that meant he wasn’t causing him any deeper pain. He moved his hand, never pressing too hard, across the other’s back – watching the movement, examining every intrusive colour or cut that shouldn’t ever be on the blonde’s skin. The bruises were varied in sizes and they reached everywhere and the cuts and scratches weren’t deep enough to bleed as they were long enough to cause suffering. None of it should exist, none of it should be there, this was all his fault, Prompto shouldn’t had to have rescued him, he should’ve been more careful, he should’ve-

“Hey”, Prompto spoke up, softly. “None of it is your fault”

It was almost like Prompto had heard his inner torture his own head had created and it was replaced with Prompto’s voice repeating that one sentence over and over again until Noctis would eventually believe it himself. _None of it is your fault, none of it is your fault, none of it is your fault._

He removed his hand and Prompto turned around, facing him. “You ok?”

Noctis smiled fondly, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

Seeing his friend’s smile returned, Prompto reciprocated it, “Wanna head back?”

Noctis nodded his head. “Yeah, let’s go back to the room”

 Prompto collected his shirt and put it back on trying his hardest not to hiss in pain. After he had successful gotten the shirt on Prompto noticed the prince’s sad look directed at him, he smiled in reassurance which appeared to help ebb it away since he got a smile back. They gradually walked back to the others and told them they were returning back to their rooms.

“So soon?”, Gladio asked.

“Guess we were more tired than we thought”, replied the prince, that being the only excuse he could come up with, he was thankful they didn’t ask any more questions.

“Alright, see you guys later”.

They didn’t speak on the way to their room, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable yet it wasn’t normal either – something hung in the air between them, both of them refused to acknowledge it therefore they continued on until they stood inside their room and Noctis spoke up.

“How – how do you want to treat them? Like, do they still hurt? Do any of them bleed or?”. Noctis could hear how jumbled his words sounded, in all honesty he didn’t know what to do next, he didn’t know if Prompto wanted his help especially since he lashed out at the beach.

“I was just gonna get some ice for the bruises. The cuts aren’t that bad and don’t bleed or anything so yeah, just needed some ice is all”

“I’ll go get some, wait here, no ifs or buts either Prom”.

No protests were heard when Noctis exited the room, instead Prompto sat on his bed, he was soaking it with his still damp shorts but he couldn’t care less. He took off his shirt, ready. This was gonna hurt like a bitch.’

The door opened again in a matter of minutes, Noctis entering it with a bag of ice in one hand and some towels in the other. He sat on the bed partly behind Prompto so that he could have a clear view of his back. There had been some scratches on his chest, Noctis knew that and he had seen that but it was _nothing_ compared to his back – most of the bruises were probably caused from when he had fallen to the floor at the clone’s feet, Noctis shuddered at the memory.

He opened the bag of ice and placed a hand full of the cold cubes in the towel, then he wrapped it up firmly, before he placing it on Prompto’s back he gave out a warning.

“This might sting, I’ll be as careful as I can but I can’t promise it won’t hurt”.

“It’s fine dude, I trust you”.

Noctis was careful, like he had promised, pressing the towel softly but he still felt the blonde’s body tense and tremble in pain. It was worse than treating the hand wound just because the large area Noctis would have to cover before he could let Prompto rest.

After a while, Noctis felt like he had done enough and placed the towel and the rest of the ice on the floor, he could put them away later.

He cleared his throat, “Does that feel any better?”

“Yeah, thanks dude, I owe you one”, he chuckled, “or I guess I owe you two since you helped with my hand as well”.

“You don’t owe me anything Prom… hey, uh actually, I need to tell you something”.

Curious, Prompto shifted so that he could face him directly, “really? What is it?”.

Noctis crossed his legs and awkwardly glanced down at his hands in his lap, “Just, about when I had the nightmare before, I wanted to say…thanks and thanks for the first time it happened too and – and thanks for saving us… Prom… I’m sorry you had to – you had to suffer and wander through that hellhole just for us.”

“Aw dude there’s no need to thank me or apologise, I already told the big guy and Iggy that after they tried earlier – it’s not like I could’ve left you there. As for helping you with, y’know, your bad dreams, it was really no problem dude – I – I’m glad I could’ve helped”.

He lifted his eyes to meet Prompto’s gaze and small smile, “Thanks Prom”.

“Dude! Stop thanking me!”, Prompto’s contagious laugh caused Noctis to let out one of his own.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop”

“Good”

“Hey Prom?”

“Yeah dude?”

“Could I – could you”, he was nervous, he felt nervous and he knew he sounded it too – Prompto’s questioning look confirmed that.

“Could I what?”

“Just, just stay there, don’t move”.

Prompto sounded part suspicious, part skittish, “Um, ok? I guess”.

Noctis felt like he was in some kind of weird trance as he crawled closer to Prom, it was similar to how he felt when he had treated Prompto’s hand and then left a small kiss where his mind is blank with only one goal or thought in mind, where any reasoning or logic left him, like he was drunk, and he just wanted to reach out and touch. Almost stealthily, he crawled towards Prompto and then he went around him so that he was behind the man’s back. Sitting on his knees, he reached his hand forwards and touched one of the bigger bruises on Prompto’s back; he stroked it slowly then he leaned forwards and pressed his lips to the blonde’s skin, leaving a tender kiss on the sensitive, blueish mark. Then he moved his head back, his face felt hot in embarrassment but what’s done is done and he wasn’t going to act like he didn’t want to.

No one moved, no one spoke, Noctis wondered if he or Prompto were still breathing it was so quiet.

“um, Noct… did you just- “

He stopped there and Noctis didn’t know how to respond, he couldn’t just leave it to go to silence again though.

“I, yeah I- um I did”.

His blue eyes downcast, he heard a shuffle of movement – was Prompto leaving? Was he just going to pretend it didn’t happen?

“Noct”, he heard Prompto ask, he didn’t look up, “Noct… come on, look at me please”

Those words. That was the same thing he had said to Prompto at that facility when he had confronted him, he recognised that begging, desperate tone from when he spoke to the blonde, he couldn’t ignore those words – not when Prompto didn’t deserve to be ignored, not when he knew those words all too well. Reluctantly, he lifted his head showing the blonde his distressed filled eyes.

Looking at him, Noctis could see that Prompto was just as lost for words as he was and even though he had asked the prince to lift his head he didn’t seem to know what to say or do next as he kept glancing to the side and then back to him and glancing away again, biting his lip. He couldn’t take this.

“Prom…I’m – I’m sorry I- uh”. He gave up, the words weren’t coming to his head and they certainly weren’t forming in his mouth so he simply waited and hoped Prompto would react or say _something_ soon.

“You really need to stop apologising dude”

Noctis locked eyes with the blonde to see him smiling kindly at him. _Huh, well, I wasn’t expecting that._ He saw Prompto move his hand to his face then he cuffed his cheek delicately, Noctis found himself leaning into the touch – it was… nice and warm, it helped reduce his frantic state.

“So… listen Noct, I might be wrong but I… listen, just push me away if I’m- I’m messing up or…”, Prompto closed his eyes, breathed in deeply and reopened them. “Screw it”, he whispered.

Time seemed to slow down, Prompto was gradually leaning in closer, he didn’t know what to do, the prince sat there not moving an inch. When he was close enough that his breath was ghosting over Noctis’ lips, Noctis felt the blonde hesitate before closing the gap and placing his lips on his own. He gasped but he didn’t pull back, he didn’t want to instead he closed his own eyes and tried to reciprocate the kiss. Considering it was his first kiss and he had no idea what he was doing, Noctis guessed that he probably wasn’t the best at this however, the way Prompto was kissing him… _gods Prompto is a good kisser._

That was the last thought in his mind before Prompto pulled back, way too soon in his opinion, removed his hand and opened his eyes appearing to inspect Noctis face. The blonde was nervous, he started to bite his lip again.

“S- sorry, sorry… shit… I fucked up, didn’t I? Sorry Noct, I- shit”. Prompto was rambling in his worried state yet Noctis’ words were still a struggle with the only sentence in his head being: _can you kiss me again?_

He decided against saying that.

“Prompto…”

Prompto stared at Noctis; seeing his dazed state and shining eyes and any words he had died. The silence returned, both of them just sitting and watching each other, he took glances at Prompto’s lips enough times that the blonde must’ve noticed.

“Are- are we going to talk about this Noct? We can just forget about it if- if you want I know you... don’t…”. Another pause.

He didn’t want to forget, he didn’t want to talk, he wanted…

“Kiss me”

“Huh?!”, Prompto asked, a little louder than he should have - too confused about Noctis’ words to care about how he sounded.

He fiddled with sheets underneath him and less confidently asked, “Kiss me again?”.

“Uh… sure, ok”.

Before his resolve depleted completely, Prompto moved slightly faster this time; gripping his cheek and leaning in, brushing his lips against the prince’s. Noctis responded quicker this time, closing his eyes and letting himself relax against the blonde’s lips. He wrapped his arms around Prompto’s neck, his hands finding their way into the his still damp hair, and shuffled closer to him, he felt Prompto guide his head to deepen the kiss with his hand and moved his other one to his hip, using his thumb to rub circles into his side.

Good thing Ignis and Gladio weren’t here.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kno it ended suddenly but there was alreadyyy so many words so i just had to stop. :)  
> Those of u who read the notes: hi, how yo doin?
> 
> Anyway i tried me best, leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind- i always reply) or come chat to meh on tumblr (if da links works that is - ive never actually tested it if not my tumblr is: lexzera)  
>  [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)  
> have a good night/ day


	21. Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kisses from your best friend can be difficult, especially if you don't talk to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy :)  
> Soz for any mistakes

In between kisses and needy touches, Noctis had moved to straddle his lap and to say Prompto was lost in the moment was an understatement. All he knew was Noctis, how his lips felt against his own, how their bodies perfectly fit together, how his hands were gripping his hair as he tried to get closer. As each second past, each kiss got deeper, each hand moved more to explore each other with touches, eventually they had to stop for breath – they didn’t move their faces too far however, their breaths mingled while they stared at each other with hooded eyes. Prompto’s eyes flickered from Noctis’ intense gaze to the tempting skin on the prince’s neck… _Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound I guess…_

While Noctis was still recovering from the lack of air, Prompto moved to his neck; sucking, biting and kissing all along the pale skin. Noctis gasped, little moans left his lips as he continued his onslaught – each sound spurring his movements further. _Gods, Noct can make such pretty sounds._ His hand wondered from the prince’s hip to under his shirt, his hand lightly brushing over his skin, he felt it shiver under his touch.

“OI! YOU TWO AWAKE IN THERE?”

The boys had never moved so quickly, scrambling from the other in a frenzy, hearts beating loud, breaths heavy. They looked at one another, eyes wide, then Prompto cleared his throat.

“U-uh, Yeah, yeah, we’re awake!”

A knock on the door. “Me and Iggy are gonna go get some grub, you wanna join?”

“We- we’ll be down in a minute!”

He watched as Noctis purposely dip his head down moving off the bed, “We, we should go”.

The blonde bit his lip, saying nothing in response.

They awkwardly shuffled down to join Ignis and Gladio in the café. Throughout dinner, neither said a word except to answer questions Ignis would ask trying to figure out what was wrong with them. Both of them tried their hardest not to catch the other’s eyes which was definitely noticed by the other two, they didn’t comment on it and simply watched their odd behaviour.

Afterwards, they had both bid Gladio and Ignis a goodnight before returning to their room. Not one word was said as they got themselves ready for bed and climbed into their own – they even had their backs to each other as they tried to fall asleep.

_It was a mistake,_ those were the words he was waiting for Noctis to say and as much as it would break his heart he would just laugh it off, ignore it and agree with the prince and he would keep pretending, except this time it would be _much_ harder. He would do it because he _had_ to, he would do it because he couldn’t lose Noctis. He would do it for him. Sleep eventually took him.

 

Noctis couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the same thing; a dead body with blonde hair and a lifeless face… Prompto…, _my fault, my fault, my fault_ , so instead he watched the slow rise and fall of Prompto’s chest – trying to find some comfort in the fact that he could see him breathing…alive. It wasn’t enough.

He crawled out of his bed and approached Prompto’s, for a few seconds he stood there watching his friend peacefully sleep. _Just wake him up, ask him if you can sleep like you did earlier – just do it you coward._ He couldn’t, no matter how much his mind beat him up for it. He let out a heavy sigh.

“…Noct?”

A dreary voice startled him and he saw Prompto squinting up at him with tired eyes.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?”. He slapped himself internally, _of course you woke him up you idiot, you were just staring at him like a weirdo!_ At least Prompto was actually talking to him considering the tense silence over dinner, there again, he himself didn’t do much to break it either – if anything he probably made it worst.

“It’s fine dude, what’s wrong?”, Prompto replies, sitting up.

_Well you might as well tell him now. “_ I – I can’t sleep”, he mumbles shrugging – his eyes looking down at the floor.

He was about to turn around to leave the blonde to sleep and so that he could pretend none of it happened.

“Want to sleep with me?”

His head lifted hesitantly, “…really?”

Prompto shrugged, “Sure dude, it doesn’t bother me. Plus, I think I have an idea of why you can’t sleep”. Prompto’s eyes gazed at him sympathetically as if he knew all of his troubles and pulled the cover to the side and made room for the prince.

Noctis didn’t hesitate in clambering in the bed, lying on his side facing the blonde.

“Better?”

_Not yet,_ he thought, pushing down his embarrassment and pride and moving closer to Prompto, wrapping his arms around his waist. He felt the blonde stiffen and heard him take a shaky breath before feeling arms wrap around his head and shoulders.

Maybe he was pushing this far, he had ignored the blonde all evening and now he was selfishly accepting his efforts to help but, he _really_ needed this. The situation with Ardyn, the nightmares, nearly losing Prompto again and again was breaking him apart. He wanted Prompto, he _needed_ Prompto – to be close, to touch, to, to… _Don’t take him away from me. Never._

Noctis heard nothing but the breaths of the man he had completely snuggled himself into, he thought the blonde had gone back to sleep, he looked up only to see Prompto looking down at him. Being caught watching the prince, Prompto dashed his eyes to the side.

“Prom”

He still didn’t look at him. “Yeah buddy?”

“…About what happened before…”

Beside him, Noctis felt Prompto’s whole body tense. “What- what about it?”.

The sudden change in atmosphere felt suffocating to him, apprehension preventing him from answering and Prompto’s far away tone and stubborn eyes that would not look at him did not help.

“I – I just…never mind it doesn’t matter”. He felt sick like Prompto had just thrown his words down his throat like they were nothing, he stopped talking and closed himself off.

His words shook Prompto from his defensive state, his eyes shifting his attention back to the prince.

“Aw shit dude I didn’t mean – Noct I – I didn’t mean to sound so defensive about it – if, if you’ve got something on your mind you can tell me dude… just ignore my stupid reactions, my mind’s just being a bitch right now and…”. This was getting them nowhere, he took in a deep breath. “I’m sorry dude, I won’t force you to tell me whatever your thinking about but… if you want to, I’ll listen no matter what”.

A soft hand started wondering through his hair, comforting him to relax, almost like a small apology for the blonde’s reaction. Prompto was truthful, he knew that, Prompto was always truthful with him… _time to try again I suppose._

“I was just thinking that…you know… why’d you kiss me?”

“Well I- uh, well why did _you_ kiss _me?”_

Noctis face blew up red. “I -I didn’t!”

“You did! You kissed my hand and my back!”

“well I – “

Noctis took a breath, this was not how he should’ve started this, he shouldn’t have asked that question especially since, technically, he was the one who started the whole kissing thing.

“Prom I – I just wanted to, ok?!”

“…You, you just wanted to?”. The reply was said with such sadness, Noctis looked up to see the blonde smiling at him with hurt filled eyes. “And – and did you ever think about how _I_ would feel about it… “, a broken breath, “did you even care?”

_Shit, shit, shit._

“No! shit I mean yes! I mean, that’s not how I wanted to – that came out wrong, I just – I -I”

A small sniff was heard but no tears left Prompto’s eyes, he laughed quietly and turned to lie on his back - letting go of Noctis, “Heh, it’s fine dude, after all, we’re just a couple of friends messing around, yeah? No need to be all serious about it”.

_No, no, this wasn’t what I wanted._

Pathetically, pushing away all of his restraint to try to keep some of his dignity, Noctis reached across and tugged on Prompto’s shirt – missing his warmth and closeness, “Wait! No Prom, I don’t- “

Prompto stayed lying down on his back, shrugging off Noctis weak grip with a gentle tug to the side. “We should get some sleep, night dude”.

The blonde didn’t even pretend to go to sleep, he lay there his eyes open with no usual happy aura only a blank expression.

Inside, Noctis could feel himself fall apart piece by piece, he had screwed up bad, he’d said the wrong thing and now…

Jaw clenched, he sat up, after all this he was not gonna lose Prompto now, he was going to fix _this._ He lifted himself up and sat down on Prompto’s stomach with a thud! One leg on either side of him, arms stretched in front of him resting on the blonde’s chest. The blonde jumped under him.

“Noct! What the- “

“I DON’T WANT THIS TO BE JUST TWO FRIENDS MESSING AROUND!”

“…huh?”

“Do you really think I would just _kiss_ a friend?! For fun?! For a laugh?! Just to mess around?!”

_“_ I uh – you – um”

Prompto’s eyes were wide with surprise, his words lost whereas Noctis wore the opposite expression; his eyes narrowed, boring into the other’s eyes, his teeth partly bared, his words unending.

“Did you really think I would take advantage like?! of my best friend?! I would never, ever hurt you like that! You mean everything to me and I- “

His brain caught up with his mouth and Noctis’ expression turned surprised, copying Prompto’s whose eyes had only gotten wider. His anger dissipated and he dropped his gaze, causing his black hair to cover his eyes.

“…or whatever, doesn’t matter”, he mumbled.

Underneath him, Prompto shifted so he was sitting up as much as he could, looking at him he asked, “Do you really mean that?”

Noctis rubbed his arm, “Well… yeah otherwise I wouldn’t have said it, I wouldn’t just spit something so embarrassing out without- “

“I love you”.

Noctis head snapped up, eyes enormous, mouth open, watching in stunned silence.

Prompto’s tone was lighter than he thought it was going to be and much more level, glancing from the side back to Noctis and back again, partly smiling sheepishly, “I thought it was kinda obvious dude, guess I was better at hiding than I thought”, he shrugged “so yeah…. there’s that out in the open”.

The prince looked at him incredulously, “you, you love me?”.

“Well yeah dude, you say it like it’s so hard.”

“For how long?”

The questions were not expected and caused Prompto to startle, “well, um around late high school I guess?”

A blank but curious gaze was settled on him, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Huh, um, I – I didn’t want to ruin anything? our friendship meant too much to me to risk… plus”, their eyes locked, Prompto gnawing at his bottom lip before stating firmly, “you deserve better than me”.

A frown formed on his lips. “How – Why do I deserve- “

“Well, you know, it’s just that you - you’re a freaking prince and I- I’m, y’know, nothing much”, he mumbled the final words.

“What does my title have to do with anything?”

A soft chuckle left his lips, “even without it, you deserve so much more than what I can give you and I- I accepted that so I kept my lips shut”.

The frown deepened, “I’m pretty sure I decide what I want or deserve and what’s enough or not enough for me”.

Prompto’s eyebrows raised but he said nothing else, he just sighed with a small frown on his face.

The sigh was copied by Noctis, who continued, “You – you know that you’re – you’re good enough for me, I told you that, and I – “, _say it, say it_ , “*gulp*…did you even consider that I could feel the same? that - *sigh* that I love you too…”. The last words were whispered but Prompto heard them all the same.

“Noct… if this is supposed to be some way to make me feel better it’s not- “

“Prom…”

The talking ceased, Prompto’s speech cut off by his name spoken so softly that caught his attention and made the blonde look at him. Prompto silently watched him, taking in what Noctis let him see: his open, bright, emotion filled eyes, his lips that he tugging on with his teeth – so much was being said by a face that usually stayed blank.

 “You’re – you’re serious”

A confirmation with a nod of his head.

“Then why… why did you ignore me after we-, he started to fumble with the sheets beneath him, his words stuttering slightly, “You, you wouldn’t even look me -me in the eye”.

“I just... I reacted badly ok?! You randomly kissed me, I didn’t know what to think! What it meant, if anything!”. Noctis looked off to the side. “You ignored me too”.

“I thought – I thought you were ashamed – I – I thought you thought it was a mistake and that you… regretted it”, he whispered.

“I don’t regret it… it – it was nice…”.

Noctis heartbeat was so loud he could hear it, Prompto’s wasn’t much better – it beating rapidly underneath his hands. Then he saw Prompto moved his slightly shaky hands; one towards his leg, keeping him in place and the other reaching towards his face. He cuffed the prince’s cheek and sat up further, leaning towards him – Noctis met him halfway.

It was a shy brush of the lips to start like it was their very first one, that soon developed - becoming bolder. His hands were in Prompto’s hair whereas Prompto’s were now both on his upper thighs – stroking up and down. It was a patient kiss, not too needy, both of them content enough with what they had. They broke apart when their oxygen levels were too low, taking in quick, short breaths. Even with them gasping for breath, Noctis felt a dumb, stupid grin tug at his lips – the same one that was situated on Prompto’s face.

“I love you”.

 

Prompto’s eyes widened but soon returned to normal, his smile grew bigger, he would never get use to hearing those words. “I love you too”.

Looking up Prompto saw a sight that took everything out of him. Noctis, his Noctis, smiling a rare, pure smile, eyes alight with a sparkle and filled with emotion that he could now identify: adoration, fondness… love. He could look at this sight for the rest of his life, except:

“Not to ruin the moment or anything dude but, can you get off? My legs have gone numb”.

The prince snorted before carefully climbing off him and moving to sit beside him. As soon as he had settled down Prompto moved his hand and linked it with Noctis’, Noctis only looked up - he squeezed back then he shifted so he could curl into the blonde’s chest, a large yawn escaping him.

“You tired buddy?”

A sleepy groan erupted from Noctis and he cuddled further into him.

“Alrighty then”, Prompto chuckled, manoeuvring himself onto his back, trying not to disturb the sleepy prince as much as possible, he pulled the covers over them both and left a small kiss on the top of Noctis’ head.

“Goodnight Noct”.

“Night Prom”.

 

It was quiet, so quiet gentle breaths could be heard in the air from the two boys. Somewhere outside birds quietly sang a small night melody which mixed with the gentle sound of bristling leaves in the trees to create a calm, atmospheric night. The only night life were nocturnal creatures and artificial lights and sounds; all people had retired to their residences. Considering the dwelling demons just beyond, everything had a tranquil feeling to it.

That is, until, a scream sliced through the night.

Prompto awoke with a start, his vision bleared with sleep and his limbs partly unresponsive due to his sudden disturbance, panic flooded through his system recognising that scream, _Noctis,_ he sat up instantly and turned to his side. There sat Noct, still screaming, his hands gripping his hair so hard it was close to tearing it. He hadn’t woken up yet, although he was sitting up, still trapped in whatever hell he was seeing. Without a second though Prompto grabbed the prince’s hands trying not to cause him any pain as he tore them from his head, he pinned him to the bed still holding onto his wrists. Noctis was flailing; his legs kicking wilding, his arms struggling against his hold, his head tossing side to side wildly – the screaming hadn’t stopped. Prompto really started to panic then, it had never been this bad usually touch brought him back, the screaming never lasted this long – he usually woke up.

“NOCT! NOCTIS WAKE UP! IT’S JUST A DREAM! WAKE UP! IT’S NOT REAL, YOU’RE SAFE!”. He was shouting, his voice taking on a demanding edge, Noctis needed to wake up, he had to get him to wake up. It helped slightly, there was still thrashing and screaming but it seemed slower. Shouting at him wasn’t going to work completely however, so he tried something else.

He forced Noctis’ wrists to cross so he could hold onto them with only one hand, then he used his now free hand to firmly grab Noctis face, shaking him slightly while moving his hand up and down.

“Come on buddy! fight it! wake up! you’re ok, I’m ok, everyone is fine!”.

Prompto tried to touch as much skin as he could with one hand moving from Noctis’ head to his chest to his arms and back to his face again, hoping the feeling would help bring Noctis back to reality, grounding him out of the nightmare.

The screams died down into soft whimpers, the struggling and all movement stopped. At this moment Ignis and Gladio crashed through the door.

“Is everything alright?! What happen- “, Ignis asked rather forcefully, stopping when he saw the other two and seeing that no fight or sudden danger had occurred – both were safe just a little freaked out, Noctis wasn’t screaming because he was hurt, at least not physically and if what he saw was anything to go by, Noctis had had a night terror and Prompto was helping him calm down – it appeared to be working.

“He’s safe Iggy, just a nightmare”.

Ignis sighed. “Alright, I’ll trust you with this Prompto, seeing as overcrowding Noctis when he wakes up won’t do him any good”. Plus, whatever he was doing was definitely helping and Ignis wouldn’t want himself or Gladio to stop or slow down the progress he was making.

“R- right! Ok”.

“Come Gladio, let’s give Noctis his space”.

The clearly tired Gladio grunted in agreement and followed Ignis out of the room, leaving Prompto with the still whimpering Noctis.

Seeing as the prince had stopped moving, Prompto released his wrist and used both of his hands to continue what he was doing earlier. He changed his words to whispers, directly into Noctis ears.

“Come on Noct, you can do it, you’re strong, you can wake up, come on.”

The soft whispers halted all whimpering and Noctis breath returned to normal, after a few more seconds the prince opened his eyes.

“Prom… Prompto, Prompto, Prompto”. He kept repeating his name over and over in a broken, miserable voice. _Maybe the same nightmare again._

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, it’s ok, it’s me buddy, I’m here, I’ve always been here”

He stoked Noctis’ cheek until the prince stopped mumbling his name and woke up further into reality.

“You awake now? You with me buddy?”

“…Yeah”

Prompto smiled. “Good”.

With Noctis much calmer, Prompto moved closer to him and started to kiss him everywhere, hoping it would give him some kind of comfort with the contact; leaving little pecks on his cheeks, his forehead, his jaw, neck, ears and finally his lips. Then he moved his hand through the prince’s hair.

“You ok?”

“…Not sure”

“That’s ok, let’s sit you up yeah?”

Noctis nodded and Prompto moved off him so that he could help lift Noctis up using his hands under his arms. Once he was sitting, Prompto pulled him into a hug – cradling him like before, comforting him like he would do every time, although he prayed this to be the last – Noctis didn’t deserve this, he didn’t deserve any of it.

“Was it different or the same this time?”

Noctis squeezed his arms around him. “Different, so different… so much worse”

“What happened?”, Prompto whispered.

It took a short moment before Noctis responded, taking in deep breaths to steady himself. “I – you… I kept losing…you. You – you died at that facility and – and it wasn’t just once, I kept seeing it on that stupid security feed , each *sigh* each time was, it was different; shot by MTs, sli- sliced to pieces, poison, killed- ahem, killed by Ardyn…killed by that clone”, Noctis squeezed even tighter, tears free, “you kept leaving me and I- I didn’t stop it, I couldn’t move no matter – no matter how much I tried to! My fault, all of it was my fault!”

“Hey, hey, shhhh, it didn’t happen, you didn’t lose me, I’m right here”.

Noctis tear filled eyes looked up at him, “but I almost did”.

“And if you did, it wouldn’t have been your fault”. Prompto brushed away the prince’s tears, his own now falling, “Are you really gonna keep blaming yourself? Even after my dumb speech the last time? I told you before stupid, you didn’t do anything wrong, you are not to blame”.

“You – you can’t honestly believe that I have no fault in this, that I – that I didn’t help cause it”

“I can and I do. No one forced me to go Noct… it was my choice and if I had – then it would’ve been my own fault, my own cause”. He smiled down at him. “And I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it, because you – you would’ve been worth it”.

Prompto could feel the heavy flow of tears down his cheeks, he let them and focused on cuddling the man beside him in his own upset state.

 

_He would’ve been worth it, every cut, every bruise, every slice – all of the pain._

_It would’ve been worth it._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gladio and Ignis had to ruin the good stuff didnt they?  
> I knooo nocts nightmares are quite constant and the reassurances may seem repetitive but the guy has been through a lot and having those kind of really bad nightmares can mean you need all the reassuring words cause your in a vulnerable place when waking from a nightmare...... OR MAYBE I JUST LIKE MY HURT AND COMFORT OK?!!
> 
> Thanks for reading... OH and thanks to all the peeps leaving those lovely comments - love ya ;)  
> leave a comment if ya want (could be about anything i dont mind- i always reply) or come chat to meh on tumblr (if da links works that is - ive never actually tested it if not my tumblr is: lexzera)  
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)  
> Have a good night/day ma PEEPS


	22. Sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The finale.  
> Noctis worries.  
> Prompto is amused.  
> And an ending that they deserve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoy  
> Soz for any mistakes or if it's shit

 

The next day Noctis discovered he couldn’t sleep without Prompto’s arms around him, otherwise a nightmare would ensure. He discovered this when he took a nap in the hotel lounge while waiting for Ignis to fetch the regalia, Gladio had gone off somewhere to stretch his legs and Prompto was snapping some photos out front, it didn’t end well and it had freaked everyone out, he didn’t try to sleep alone after that. So, after they had got into the Regalia for what felt like the first time in forever, when he was close to dozing off, Gladio and Prompto would wordlessly swap positions so that he could cuddle the blonde in the back, Prompto didn’t seem to mind – not at all. How Gladio knew to swap and how Ignis knew to stop the car so they could, Noctis didn’t know but he didn’t question it. Other than that, things had return to normal – or as normal as it could be for them. Cindy had fixed the Regalia like promised, so they were back on the road, their shortage of gil meant that they took on a few hunts as soon as they presented themselves they were easy and they gave good rewards – no problems there.

There was one thing, however, that bothered the prince or more specifically it was one person. Prompto.

It wasn’t the man himself that was the problem, no, Prompto was too bright, too perfect to be seen in such a bad view - but it did involve him. The root of his problem was simple; that night where words were spoken that Noctis thought would never be spoken to him. Love. Right from the bottom of his heart Noctis could honestly say that he knew that love was one thing he was completely unexperienced in, maybe that’s kinda weird for someone whose engaged but it was the truth. Thinking of the engagement, Noctis made a mental note to talk to Prompto’s thoughts about that later and he should probably message Luna too, that’s if he can get a full, normal sentence to Prompto because currently he was struggling – another part of his problem.

Noctis didn’t know what was wrong with him but every moment spent close to the blonde made his stomach do weird flips which just messed up his speech and interactions with him. He found himself overthinking every touch, every comment, just everything; were they always this touchy? Did Prompto’s contact always send small jolts through his vein? _I’m losing my goddamn mind,_ this was why he left the thinking to Ignis but its not like he could just casually bring it up; _Hey Ignis, me and Prompto kissed and kinda told the other that we love each other and now I don’t know what to do, my head’s all over the place and my emotions are in overload so…thoughts? –_ Yeah that conversation would be interesting. Was he being weird? Gods he hoped he wasn’t being weird.

Caught up in his head all day didn’t help with his concentration which is a bad idea when faced with 10-foot-tall beast, so he was unbelievably grateful when Ignis had suggested they have an early night and make camp somewhere. They had all chatted idly while Ignis prepared dinner, Noctis found himself watching Prompto way more than he should but it didn’t look like anyone noticed – did he always stare? Is that why no one has spoken up about it? Maybe they just didn’t see or care… and now he was thinking too much again.

After dinner, he had made up some excuse to everyone that he was going to clear his head – which wasn’t entirely a lie – and headed away from the group towards a small cliff side facing the sunset, he probably would’ve appreciated the view more if he wasn’t so distracted he didn’t even notice the sound of footsteps heading towards him until a voice spoke out.

“Noct!”

He snapped out of his tranced state to see Prompto now standing over him. “Mind if I sit?”

“It’s a free country”. He shrugged.

“Thanks dude”.

Prompto dropped down beside him and joined him in watching the sunset. It was really pretty, he was surprised Prompto hadn’t gotten his camera out, instead his friend? That wasn’t really an appropriate word to use anymore… or was it?

He sighed, this was just getting more and more confusing.

“Hope ya don’t mind me asking but… dude you ok? You’ve been acting a little odd”

_Huh, so it was noticeable._ “Yeah, yeah I’m good”. He was not good.

He saw Prompto’s lips turn into a small frown, “it’s not the nightmares is it?”.

The unneeded concern was dismissed. “No, they’ve stopped, I’ve just been thinking…that’s all”.

Casually he leaned back, expecting the usual: ‘be careful, you might hurt yourself’, would be heard from the blonde however the opportunity for it must’ve been ignored by Prompto as he responded with, “anything you wanna talk about?”

A bit hesitant, Noctis turned to face Prompto who smiled back at him, “I’m always here to listen dude”.

His eyes drifted back to the sunset, “It’s not important or anything…”, Noctis mumbled.

“If it’s staying on ya mind it must be at least a little bit important yeah?”.

“*sigh* alright, just promise not to laugh or anything”. A nod of a promise was shown by Prompto before he continued, “I’ve just been thinking; mainly about last night”. He saw Prompto tense beside him. “Ah, nothing bad or anything, it’s more…well…. Complicated? I guess…. I don’t know. I – you’re my best friend Prom, no… you’re more than that and I”, he shrugged, his tone mocking an indifferent tone, “I just don’t wanna mess it up alright?”

The unnerving silence dug into Noctis although he did his best to not let it show, he kept glancing at the blonde trying to figure out his thoughts – none of the glances gave him any insight however. In his head he had already planned his way out; to excuse himself, to walk away and try and sleep this off, never to discuss it again until he heard a giggle beside him, mocking his little speech.

“Hey! You promised you wouldn’t laugh!”

“I’m, I’m”, another fit of giggles burst through, “I’m, haha, so pfft sorry Noct but haaaa – seriously dude? That’s what your bothered by?”

“I mean yeah? Kinda…”, he huffed, “told you it was stupid”.

“Aw no dude it’s not – I promise”, he placed his hand on Noct’s shoulder in reassurance, “I am sorry I laughed Noct – it’s not stupid, it’s kinda… sweet actually”.

Noctis hunched over, his eyes on the ground. “It still feels like you’re taking the piss”.

“I’m not dude, seriously””. Prompto shook his head side to side, leaning forwards to try to catch his gaze. “If its any consolation… you’re not gonna mess up”.

Noctis let out an undignified snort, “How do you know?”.

A nervous laugh. “Well, I did tell you that I – I love you so… you can’t exactly mess it up after that… you can’t lose me, if that’s what’s bothering you, I’m yours…. I would’ve thought the confession made that obvious”.

A deep flush covered Noctis’ face as he continued to look at the ground, letting out an awkward chuckle, “heh, yeah, I – I guess you’re right. Guess I should’ve figured that out huh? It’s just that I’ve – I’ve never done anything like this before”, he said, gesturing between the two of them vaguely.

He felt a warm hand intertwined with his, he slowly moved his gaze from the ground to the man beside him who was smiling – Noctis couldn’t tell if it was in amusement or fondness, it was warm either way. “Well, not like any of that matters – I could just teach ya”.

Feeling much better, Noctis let out a lighter snort at that, “you? Teach me?”.

“Believe it or not dude, I _have_ actually dated before sooooo I guess that means I have more experience than youuuu”, he teased.

Of all the random things Prompto had told him in the past, this was definitely the one that shocked him the most. “You’ve dated? Like actually dated? Who?! When?!”.

Prompto’s smile turned into a teasing smirk, his teeth slightly bared, “Ah, ah, ah, nope we’re going off topic, that can be a secret for another day, yeah?”.

Irritated, Noctis huffed, “Fine but don’t think I’ll forget about this”.

“Ha, course not dude”.

Their hands stayed intertwined, they quietly watched the sunset together – the atmosphere much calmer again like it should be, the glowing light and warmth in his hand made Noctis feel more content than he had been that day, everything seemed like it was slowing down and he made sure to take in all in.

“Hey Noct? I don’t wanna disturb the good feeling right now but, since we’re on the topic of troubles and stuff, can I ask you a question?”.

His gaze settled on the blonde’s glowing form, his entire attention on him, “Sure Prom, what is it?”.

“Well I - I guess I should’ve asked before I – I uh… Lady Luna?”

“Ohh”.

He watched the blonde take a breath, gnawing on his lip in a small sign of nervousness. “I love ya Noct, that ain’t gonna change but you are engaged…”

“Arranged”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t love her”. Prompto didn’t sound hurt or annoyed, his was simply stating it, interjecting Noctis’ interruption before he could even finish it. He felt the warmth in his hand leave as Prompto moved his hand and clasped his own together. “It’s fine if ya do, I wouldn’t blame you or nothing…”.

That hurt him, Prompto’s words hurt, they weren’t harsh, they didn’t insult him or imply anything yet… they hurt so he acted. He moved his hand abruptly forward, snatching Prompto’s. “I love you.”, he said firmly, making sure he got the blonde’s attention, “You go on about how you confessed and it should’ve been obvious to me how you felt, yet I said the exact same words back but you still really think that I love someone else? If I had the choice I would cancel this wedding so that Luna could be free to marry who she wished and I could be with you with no complications but…”, he sighed, disheartened, “It’s never that easy in my life”.

There… that was the truth wasn’t it? No matter what, there was always gonna be problems, issues in his life stopping him from getting what he wanted, what he truly wanted. And because of all the hang ups, all of the complications, people close to him got caught up in it too, maybe, maybe that’s why he’s surprised they still stuck around, they still stay with him – maybe it’s because they don’t have a choice but… Prompto had a choice, Prompto’s always had the choice to leave him whenever he wanted he didn’t have to be tied down with him yet he stayed by his side.

And that was the one thing in his life that made him lucky. Not the fame or riches like his classmates use to whisper behind his back, not any special treatment he received, no, the one, greatest thing in his life that actually made his life worth living, that made his life more than just a superficial royal shell was Prompto and he couldn’t ever lose that piece of him.

Or he’d be broken.

Somewhere in the middle of his thoughts tears spilled from Noctis’ eyes, he didn’t waste any effort on stopping them, Prompto had seen him cry plenty of times now, no point in hiding it.

“Noct…”

His hand still tightly gripped Prompto’s, refusing to let go, “I love you”, he sobbed through a broken breath.

Prompto pulled his hand away and before a pathetic whine of wanting could leave Noctis’ lips the blonde wrapped him into his arms, letting his head rest against Prompto’s chest. “I’m sorry Noct, I’m sorry, don’t cry, I love you too”, Prompto squeezed the prince tighter, his nose deeply dug into his hair, “I’m sorry I doubted you, I’m sorry I doubted your words, I won’t ever again I promise. I love you, everything’s ok, no matter what happens I’ll be with you.”

A few minutes passed before the flood gates could close and Noctis could control his breathing once more and after his breathing became even he swiftly pulled back from Prompto’s arms so he could look at him properly. Facing him, Prompto reached out his hand and wiped away the final tears, he left his hand at Noctis’ cheek - stroking it gently then he smiled at him softly. Noctis smiled back. Prompto leaned in and left a small kiss against his, Noctis chuckled.

“We’re such saps”.

“You started it dude”, Prompto stated, chuckling right back at the prince.

“Hmm, fair enough… you know I love you now though yeah?”

A small smirk presented itself on Prompto’s lips, a playful voice sounding through them, “oh I don’t know dude, do I know that? Hmm”. He quickly leaned in again for another kiss, pulling back before Noctis could respond to it. “I guess I do, but I also know I love you more”.

The heat on his face hadn’t left, Noctis guessed he had been blushing through this whole ordeal, not that he was embarrassed or anything, that just be stupid. “Shut up and stop pulling away so quickly”.

“Wow, princes are so needy”, Prompto laughed then he leaned in again and kissed Noctis slowly without pulling back.

Satisfied, Noctis sighed into the kiss and laid his arms over Prompto’s shoulders, fully relaxed and content. Until a thought popped back into his mind and he broke the kiss gently, not pulling away completely. He frowned, “So who are these people you’ve supposedly dated?”.

“Seriously dude? You’re still caught up on that? Ya not jealous, are you?”.

Noctis grumbled and looked away, “No, I’m not jealous, I’m just curious is all”.

“Sure, sure, whatever you say dude”. Behind them, the sun had almost completely set making their surroundings much darker than what they had been moments before. “Come on we should head back to camp”.

Another grumble before Noctis moved from Prompto, releasing him from his arms and standing up. “Fine, but you better tell me later”.

Prompto laughed, “ok dude, ya wanna play some Kings Knight when we get back?”.

“Sure, why not”.

 

 

There was once a boy who had been taught so many horrible things children his age should never learn. He learned to fight, to win, to kill.

Some called him the perfect machine, the training had worked so perfectly, too perfectly. For the boy used everything that cold, dark, disastrous place had taught him and had escaped.

And despite everything, despite all the darkness, all the harsh treatment, all the bad memories, he became a good man, the man he is today.

The bright light within him helped many, in particular a prince who had lost all hope in day to day life until that light entered his life.

A monster isn’t born it’s made and they had tried to make him one and for a while he believed he was, but the love he had earned from those around them wasn’t going to be destroyed so easily, after all, since when did where you come from matter?

A monster? No, I don’t think so, what makes a monster isn’t where you’re from or your past and he had never done anything to earn such a harmful word. An MT? No, that isn’t who he is to me, his heart is too warm, his actions too kind to be classed as the same things that caused harm to me and everyone around me.

A man whose been through a lot? Yes. A man who, even though he had every right to give in after all he had been through, became better than most of us? Yes.

Prompto told me his whole story and I listened to every word with care because he means everything to me, because he deserves to have someone to know.

He deserves the world and I shall do everything to give it to him, for now though, my company will hopefully do.

 

My name is Noctis Lucis Caelum and this is my happy ending with my love, my missing piece, my life: Prompto Argentum.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELP THAT'S ALL FOLKS
> 
> i was gonna write a smut scene somewhere in at the end but i didnt kno if peeps would want that and i didnt want to ruin the story fir everyone plussss i've never written it so idk if i'll be able to
> 
> If ya do want me to write a smut scene i can add it at the end, just comment down belowww for ittt IF NOT THEN THIS IS DEF THE END
> 
> THIS ISNT THE LAST OF ME OR MY SHIT WRITNG OH NOOO, I'VE GOT LOADS OF PROMPTIS STORY IDEAS AND I'M GONNA WRITE THEM ALL SOO IF YA COULD KEEP ON AN EYE OUT FOR THOSE THAT BE GREAT
> 
> AS ALWAYS LEAVE A COMMENT IF YA WISH, I SHALL LINK MY TUMBLR FOR ALL TO COME AND VISIT AND I HOPE YA ALL HAVE A GOOD DAY/ NIGHT
> 
> UNTIL THE NEXT FIC MY FRENS  
> [ma tumblr](http://lexzera.tumblr.com/)  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading, hope ya enjoyed :)


End file.
